So basically I'm in South Lake Tahoe, CA on vacation to go snow boarding and the other day when I left the ski resort, I drove for less than half a mile and then I smelled a burning smell so I stopped the car and I saw that my rear passenger rotor was burning red. So later after the rotor cooled down we took off the tire and noticed that the caliper was stuck to the rotor.

When the tow truck guy came he basically said this happens all the time because there's some moisture that is in between the rotor and caliper and so when I left my car at the resort all day in the cold weather, the moisture basically froze and made everything stick together.

I'm probably gonna take it to a shop nearby and see what they say but I was just wondering if anyone else had this problem before and what they did about it. I know my rotor is probably warped like hell and I need to get that replaced . Well thanks in advance!

 

Happens often on the Maxima. I had to change my rear passenger side caliper once. What happens is the brake cable often gets snapped between car lift pads and rear suspension arm, water infiltrates in the cracked cable jacket, and it freezes. This disables the caliper parking brake mechanism, untill eventually the caliper goes bad. Lack of brake fluid regular interval change cause also cause the caliper to seize.

 

Also what could have happened is that since you have an older maxima, if youve had your pads changed a few times, compressing your piston numerous times over the years could tear the rubber boot around the piston. water,snow,other debris can get into the tear and make the caliper seize. I dont think the cold weather had anything to do with it. It was just your calipers time to go. I would take some time to get that rotor checked to make sure that its not warped though. Good luck.