Stuck brake caliper story

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I jump on the highway this evening and about 1 mile down the road, I think: something ain't right. The steering wheel is vibrating and my Accord keeps downshifting on a flat road to maintain speed set by the cruise control.

Rest stop is 1/2 mile ahead. I pull over. Slight smoke coming from front right wheel. The rim is hot. I don't know what to do. I need to get to an appointment in 40 minutes that's 30 miles away. I go into bathroom and repeatedly grab 40 ounce cups of cold water and drown the caliper and rotor... There's a steam bath pouring off the wheel. After about 2 gallons of water were poured onto the brakes, the steam stopped.

I slowly backed the car up a few feet and moved it forward.... There was no noise and appeared that no drag was present. I got back on the highway, hit 55mph for a few miles, pulled off at the exit, and the wheel wasn't hot.

I completed my trip, 90 miles total, without further issues.

What could have caused this??

The front brakes were replaced 20k miles ago. There's plenty of pad left. That same rotor was "hung up" 20k miles ago, and that same wheel not only got new pads and rotors, but also a new caliper and brake line because of the excessive heat generated from being "stuck". Today the new caliper WAS hung up, but it seems ok now.

The last time I drove the car was Sunday, and I was on the turnpike for 800 straight miles, going 80-90 mph, making a few stops as I drove back to Indiana from New Haven, Connecticut. There wasn't an issue then.

And as a side note: the rotor isn't warped from getting smoking hot and then being drenched in water. There is ZERO shake or vibration in the steering wheel when I apply the brakes.
 
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As above. Whatever it was that was stuck, its a fair bet that the dimensional changes caused by your emergency thermal shock un-stuck it. Its likely it'll stick again though, and that is a high risk technique to use routinely.

Strip, clean, and lubricate.
 
You probably warped the caliper slides to the point where they aren't even allowing the caliper to move anymore.

I'd replace the caliper and lube everything at the bare minimum.
 
I'd tear it apart and find out what is up. Make sure to push the Piston in and see if it is hard to push--if so, replace caliper. Otherwise lube up and keep an eye on it.
 
Replace the caliper anyway. Because next time, it won't be ok later.

The best ones to get are Cardone Ultra or Napa Eclipse. They are coated to stop the rust.
 
The green Permatex ultra synthetic caliper grease locked up the lower guide pins on my Subaru.. The bottle doesn't say anything about how it's only for metal to metal contact, it clearly says that you can use it on guide pins.. Except for on cars like mine that have rubber anti-rattle bushings on the metal guide pins. So I guess I'm trying to say, I wonder if your caliper guide pins have rubber bushings on them that swelled and froze the caliper. Granted, my brakes didn't fully lock up or anything. The pad on inside that the pistons push against was doing the braking, and had more wear than the outer pad.
 
If you're going to replace the caliper you might as well do the brake hose too. Often the hose breaks down from the inside out and some that material can break loose and cause the caliper to malfunction. Replacing the caliper alone and leaving a bad hose can cause the replacement caliper to fail early.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
If you're going to replace the caliper you might as well do the brake hose too. Often the hose breaks down from the inside out and some that material can break loose and cause the caliper to malfunction. Replacing the caliper alone and leaving a bad hose can cause the replacement caliper to fail early.


+1 Good call Frank. Not saying that's the only possibility but its good practice. It could be slides, piston binding, pins, hardened grease on the pins, etc.
I would get a pair of Reybestos Opti-Cal calipers from Rock, they are brand new not rams and are only about $60ea. These are what I am using now instead of remans, there is no core so if you have OE never rebuilt calipers you can keep them to rebuild yourself later.
 
I suspect you know the answer already. Pull the caliper and examine everything that moves. If its the sliding pins then clean and lube if pins are not rusted, if rusted then replace the pin. If piston does not do back in, replace caliper, if nothing is found, then replace flex hose.

Check rotor with a dial gauge for runout.
 
I had this happen. The car had been sitting a couple years. But the final cure was a new master cylinder. The little hole in it that lets fluid back up when the foot's off the pedal was restricted/ blocked/ pedal pushrod out-of-calibration. After fixing the calipers I sometimes had a rock-hard pedal-- the hydraulics had a pressure preload. You should always have a little slop.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
I suspect you know the answer already. Pull the caliper and examine everything that moves. If its the sliding pins then clean and lube if pins are not rusted, if rusted then replace the pin. If piston does not do back in, replace caliper,



You can actually strip and clean calipers, if you can be bothered. Quite satisfying.
 
Had this happen a number of times. There is rust and corrosion and dirt in the caliper. It's causing the piston to seize in the caliper. Then it frees up again due to temperature changes, movement, loads, etc. If you regularly change your brake fluid it won't happen.

Take the caliper off. Blow the piston out. Clean and polish piston and cylinder. Reassemble. I always use silicon brake grease to aid in reassembly.
 
Originally Posted By: sxg6
The green Permatex ultra synthetic caliper grease locked up the lower guide pins on my Subaru.. The bottle doesn't say anything about how it's only for metal to metal contact, it clearly says that you can use it on guide pins.. Except for on cars like mine that have rubber anti-rattle bushings on the metal guide pins. So I guess I'm trying to say, I wonder if your caliper guide pins have rubber bushings on them that swelled and froze the caliper. Granted, my brakes didn't fully lock up or anything. The pad on inside that the pistons push against was doing the braking, and had more wear than the outer pad.
Any of those various colored Permatex brake lube goops will swell soft brake components. Avoid them like the plague.
 
Originally Posted By: NibbanaBanana
Take the caliper off. Blow the piston out. Clean and polish piston and cylinder. Reassemble. I always use silicon brake grease to aid in reassembly.


Shouldn't you use brake fluid instead of silicone grease ?
 
Originally Posted By: Yah-Tah-Hey
Originally Posted By: sxg6
The green Permatex ultra synthetic caliper grease locked up the lower guide pins on my Subaru.. The bottle doesn't say anything about how it's only for metal to metal contact, it clearly says that you can use it on guide pins.. Except for on cars like mine that have rubber anti-rattle bushings on the metal guide pins. So I guess I'm trying to say, I wonder if your caliper guide pins have rubber bushings on them that swelled and froze the caliper. Granted, my brakes didn't fully lock up or anything. The pad on inside that the pistons push against was doing the braking, and had more wear than the outer pad.
Any of those various colored Permatex brake lube goops will swell soft brake components. Avoid them like the plague.


^ That's a fact, the purple stuff swelled the rubber pin inserts and on top of that dried out, pure garbage. I use Sil-glyde or 3M pure silicone grease, both work great.
 
I've been using the green grease for metal to metal. Anything that has rubber gets Sil-Glyde. So far so good.
 
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