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Aging Front Caliper

2K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  David Craig 
#1 ·
My car felt like one of the front brakes was rubbing now and then while I was driving.

A friend told me to test which wheel was hotter. The driver front wheel was definitely hotter than the other side after driving.

I took off the caliper and had a look. In the pictures you can see that there is what looks like a strip of tape glued to each side of the caliper. One side had a tear and was bunching up. I cut off the defective area and the brakes don't seem to drag nearly as much. However I do sense that there is still a bit of drag from time to time. I also noticed that that wheel is still a bit hotter than the other side after driving, but nothing too shocking.

My question is, how important is that tape? Can I replace it with a new piece? If so where could I buy it?

Also, if I did decide to buy a new caliper at some point I noticed that the list price for a new one is more than $1000. Does anyone have an old one in good shape that they might wish to sell for a lot less than that?
 

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#4 ·
Thanks!

Actually that kit does not look too expensive. I'm surprised to see pistons in the kit. I didn't know those could be replaced separately.

How hard would it be to replace the pistons? Do you need special tools or knowledge?
 
#8 ·
rebuilds are not difficult. the hardest part would be getting out the pistons but that is easily done with some preparation.

You could do as LostPawn suggested, when I did mine I just pumped the brakes while there was nothing in the caliper to get the pistons to come out a bit. Be careful doing that though, if you pump too much you'll pop the piston out completely and get brake fluid everywhere.
 
#12 ·
Recently I felt like there was some dragging on the front brakes. I tried to clean up the front calipers the best I could but that didn't help. After a while I let the dealer give it a shot.

They cleaned up the front brakes nicely and there is no rubbing any more. I've removed most if not all of those pads ("Anti Rattle Brake Pad buffers").
 
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