So a while ago, I had an issue with the rear driver side brake caliper seizing. I bought a set of rear calipers of ebay and put those on. Everything seemed fine. After a while the driver side caliper began dragging, i discovered the ebrake cam was not operating correctly and to solve the dragging, i just disconnected the cable and drove like that. Well, i want my ebrake back and decided to try to get it working... i couldn't. Thinking about it, i figured i could rebuild the stock caliper that seized (since i still had it) put it back on, and have a functioning ebrake.
Well... the piston walls on the stock caliper are rusty and so the piston won't go it (i was able to take it all the way out though.)

My question is, is there anywhere (for under $183 from courtesy nissan) that i can buy just the piston assembly? Or, would i be able to take the piston from the working reman. caliper that's on the car and put it into the stock nissan caliper?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

 

I would put the stock back on for a week, and during that week work with the reman. See if you can get that replaced. If not, then start dissecting it. Find out why it's not working.

My thinking is that, since you bought reman, it shoulda been reconditioned. It's supposed to work.

There's also a TSB about ebrake dragging. Have you checked that out?

Dr J

 

Well the stock caliper had seized a while back and so it's been off the car. When I played with it, I was able to get the piston out more, but not back in... it popped out and is pretty badly pitted and rusty, so it wouldn't hold a seal in the caliper anymore (probably what made it seize)
I think i'm just going to look for a stock, good condition caliper and use that, buying the piston is too expensive and i cant see another viable fix.

 

I hear ya. Why don't you wanna try to fix the reman u already have installed?

If you need a piston, it's $6.39 on RockAuto.com. Or another reman for just over $51.

Also, info on the TSB here: http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...er-piston.html

Dr J

 

Before you buy a new piston to use, make sure that the inside of the caliper is rust free and not pitted. Good chance that it is also damaged, so a home rebuild will not be successful in the long run. I replaced both rear calipers 1.5 years ago with remans from Advance auto parts and have had no problems since.

 

Could it be your cable thats siezing and not letting the park brake not release?

 

Most of the time it is the e-brake causing the problems. They get water in them or they become bent from the car being jacked up from mechanic shops. I had the same problem and it was the cable that was bad. If your having the exact same problem with the same side after changing the caliper than I am going to say it is your cable that is sticking. The winter time is notorious for making our cables stick.

 

The TSB I linked has the step-by-step $20 ebrake fix that asand1 and Mxrider52 are talking about. Good luck!

Dr J

 

That $6.39 piston is for the front though. Otherwise i would have been all over it

 

LOL, my bad

 

I just rebuilt mines. Only one caliper was seized but since I had both of them out I did both at the same time. If I had to do it over again I probably would have just gone with some remans.

 

Were your piston or calipers pitted?
Dr J