My driver side rear breaks exhibit weird behaviour. One day they are just fine, and the other they are EXTREMELY hot after same route, same traffic conditions. This only happens to the driver side rear breaks. The passenger side is just warm to the touch as it should be. The weird thing is that this does not happen every day. I took them apart a month ago, cleaned everything and put it back together. Everything looked normal, yet they are still sticking on occasion. And no, I am not driving with my parking break on!

Anyone had experience with such thing? This is '99 Maxima SE, auto. The breaks are Raybestos, and were changed 4k miles ago.

One thing I noticed is that Maxima has a unique rear breaks adjustment mechanism. When you change the breaks, you put them in as is, and then they are adjusted by pulling and releasing the parking break a few times. Every time you pull the parking break, the piston "unscrews" from the caliper, just a little, reducing the gap, and thus adjusting the breaks to a proper grip. Could it be that my caliper has failed? It could be trying to adjust the breaks, but makes them too tight? Any ideas? Similar experiences?

Thanks!

 

there's been a fairly common problem of a sticking caliper on the rear of 4th gens. i think the remedy is to take it apart and clean it out a bit? Grim tends to get in there and cause it to stick, and hence the pads stay in contact with the rotor and get heated up

 

Does it mean I need to take the caliper apart? Do I need any special tools? Is it even worth it, or should I just get a remanufactured one from a parts store?