i was talking to a co-worker, a car mechanic on the side, and i explained to him my problem:

"Car is squeeling really bad starting a few days ago, just got the pads changed by a mechanic about 3 months ago, the car pulls hard left when braking hard, and the front right rotor has deep grooves, real deep"

he said there are a few things that might be wrong:

1. my rear brakes not be as affective, thus the huge load on the front brakes.

2. the mechanic could have put together the caliper incorrectly on the front right causing the grooves and possibly a broken pad. need to change caliper if this happened.

3. and lastly, it just might be a broken/cracked pad that is just eating away the rotor.

so my question to you guys is, how can i check to see if the caliper was put on incorrectly? i plan on changing the rotor and pads on the front regardless and maybe the calipers, if needed. also, where can i get calipers at? thanks.

 

well, for the deep grooves, only thing causing that is your metal wear indicators in the pad digging into the rotors( in other words, u let ur brakes wear down too far). If the grooves are very bad, it may not be a bad idea to have them resurfaced/ replaced.

To check the caliper, really just unbolt it and in the front use a c clamp and then use the brake pedal, or turn the piston in the rear and use the pedal once again.

From what you've posted, it really sounds like you have a frozen piston.


Your mechanic has to screw up pretty bad to install it incorrectly seeing as how the caliper bolts back in. There's only one way to install it.

 

I just got new pads about 3 months ago though, less than 5k miles. As for the Calipers, he said to get new ones regardless because with the uneven pressure, it would have resized/stretched/skewed the bolt/piston/hardware holes from the original assmbliy, in other words, its been ruined, nothin i can do about that. do you agree with that? I have yet to take the pads out yet becuase im changing them anyways, rotors too.

 

You won't know that until you take the caliper apart yourself and look at the piston and the seals, etc. He doesn't now, either. But that's around a $250 guess for another caliper, so I would make REAL sure that's whats wrong, unless you want to possibly waste money.




I take it he's a glass half empty kind of guy.

 

glass half enpty kinda guy for sure, we work in IT Support though, we are all negative but i called around and my nearest O'reillys has some rebuilt A1 calpiers for $45 dollars a piece, not loaded. I will take everything apart tonight and see what i need to get but, if i do need calipers do those sound OK to get?

btw, whats ur guess on whats wrong with my brakes? we will find out tonight for once i pull it all off.

 

Well, definitely you have a sticky caliper......it's a classic sign.


I'm no expert on safely extracting the piston out of the front calipers, but one way is to have the caliper off the pad/rotor and have your friend SLOWLY push the brake pedal, thus extending the piston out until it "falls" out into your hand (you can also just use the brake pedal to get it started and you should be able to pull it out yourself). BUT, remember there is brake fluid behind the caliper so you will have brake fluid coming out as well. Have towels, newspapers, etc. handy. And make sure your wheel is far away when doing this. Brake fluid eats paint.

Unfortunately, you will have to bleed your brakes no matter what to properly inspect the caliper, piston, seals, etc. Also, you'll need to replace those caliper and piston seal(s) in that caliper. So, you need to have those parts on hand when doing this. Otherwise, your car is down until you get those parts.



Forgive my newbieness, as I didn't realize caliper bodies were that cheap......

IT Support = dealing with lemmings = similar to moderating on dot orgy = perfectly understandable why he said get a new caliper

 

So i replaced my passenger rotor and pads just fine, took apart everything and made it all lubey. Then on to the driver side.. i was trying to separate the caliper from the torque member but the 2 bolts break. I was able to get the rest of the bolts out from both. So i went to my local O'reillys and got replacement bolts. Started to screw them in but they never tighten, now they never loosen either, so the threads are messed up. I was told it cant be rethreaded. New calipers from O'reillys..$45 a piece, but doesnt have the torque member or any bolts. Calipers from Dealer.. $415 and they take my old calipers. Calipers from Courtesy-Nissan.. $100 with a $38 core charge.

The mechanic who changed my pads before obviously did not use any anti seize on the bolts. I called him up and he will come to my house and take care of it. This was suppose to be an easy job.. its only been a huge headache.

BTW, there was some tiny rocks embedded on my passenger side brake pads, hence the grooves in the rotor.. wtf

 

Wow, he must have torqued the living crap out of those bolts....what's said is those small caliper mounting bolts require a relatively light torque setting (35 N-m or so). That's ridiculous. I could understand the other big caliper bracket bolts that go on the hub, as they require 80 N-m or so, but good grief.

I'm pretty sure anti-seized would not have mattered, and this reminds me why I do my own brake jobs.....

I can't believe the $300+ dollar difference in calipers, nor did I realize Courtesy was that cheap. I would call your local dealer and try to get a price match, or at least tell them why they lost business...

Thanks for the update!