The passenger rear caliper on my max is frozen to the point that my car won't move forward at idle. The seal around the piston is busted, is it possible to have this caliper fixed or do i just have to replace the entire thing. Also, the caliper is making the inner brake pad scrap on the rotor at an angle and it worn away and detroying the rotor. I drove around the block to see what would happen and when i stopped, the pads were smoking. Also, does anyone know where I can buy a replacement caliper? thanks

 

No it's not safe at all.

 

um, general rule of thumb... if something other than your exhaust pipe has anything resembling smoke emitting from it, stop driving. =p

 

Any auto store (Pep Boys, AutoZone, etc.) should have remanufactured ones. You pay for them and when you return your old broken one, they'll give the core charge back to you

 

also, sounds like you will have to have that rotor cut (lathed) or replaced based on the scraping that is going on. When the pads smoke, you are getting that rotor EXTREMELY hot. Rotors in such a state oftentimes warp in addition.

No, not safe on several levels.

 

i would have to agree with everyone here, you're not only damaging the caliper, rotors, and frying your pad...you can risk spinning out, and it would just make it a lot harder to drive. its starting to rain and get into the swing of winter out here... i wouldnt want to drive with a seized caliper

 

yea, don't want to go down the road and have someone yell at you "dude, your wheel isn't turning!!"

 

I agree with everyone but one thing, you might want to check see if your e-brake cable has a cut in it. This is what happened to me and it caused the caliper to sieze because the cut in the line cause the cable to be pulled while driving thus seizing out caliper. the line sits in a wierd spot and can get cut or pinched when your car is put on a lift. Just a little look out.

 

yeah, i check the e-cable and its spring and they work just fine. I tried pushing the piston back in a c-clamp but it won't budge. The wheel its frozen that bad anymore though, like I can turn it with my hand when the car is jacked up, but its no where near free spinning the way it should be. I'll have to go by a car store and see if they can order me a caliper. Anyone have a clue as to how much they go for? thanks

 

No No NO!! the rear calipers are not pushed back in. They are turned back in clockwise. This is becasue of the self-adjusting cable brake mechanism inside the caliper !

That makes rear calipers much more expensive than the front ones. I recentky paid $130CAD net after the core swap.

 

awww, damn. so is there a way to get it back in there? is there a way that it can be fixed? And for some reason, the pad is wearing unevenly really bad, can I fix that as well or must I get a new caliper? thanks

also, could I have caused this by overextending the ebrake or something because I did use it a couple of days ago when I was visiting my friends, they have a really steep driveway. thanks again

 

You can either buy a tool or I just used channel lock pliers to turn the piston clockwise.Be sure not to damage the rubber boot with the pliers.What I did was used brake fluid to unstick the boot from the piston.It worked well, is very easy and the brake fluid won't harm any of the components.Do not drive this car with the caliper sticking even a little bit!!!!!! It could very easily cause a tire fire if it is touching even the slightest bit.If you have a tire fire you can kiss you max good bye because you'll never be able to put it out in time even with a fire extinquisher.

 

hey, thanks for the reply but the boot is already torn, badly. Does this mean the caliper is irrepairable?

 

yea, you should get one of those refurbished ones...cheap and will fit

 

YEA I TOTALY AGREE AND THE BREAK FLUID MIGHT OVER HEAT WHICH WILL BURN AND IT CAN AFFECT YOUR OTHER BREAKS ALSO AND YEA WILL HAVE PROBLEMS IN THE LONG RUN WITH THE MASTER CYLINDER, YOU CAN ALSO GET A REBUILD KIT FOR IT BUT ITS BETTER IF YOU JUST GET A NEW ONE I WOULD THINK ITS THE SAME PRICE....

 

tire might get too hot and air could expand. Tire overinflates itself and BOOM!!!!, blown tire

 

i just had the same problem. i HAD to drive on it and it was fine. it was only fine because 3 days later i had my rotors all replaced new calipers pads the works...so i wasn't worried about hurting things...back brakes don't do much in our cars anyways, they might was well be drums.

 

I had this happen to me a few months back. i didn't know what was wrong, there waws a weird noise coming out of my rear passenger tire. I went to pepboys and they told me my rear caliper was seized. They charged me $800 to get it fixed! They changed the rear calipers, rotors, etc. It sucked but there was nothing i can do, the car was there and I didn't know what to do. Oh well, wish i would have waited and bought a big brake kit

 

yea it is safe, they are suppose to do that????

 

aight, i got caliper rotated back in and it seems to be working fine. Now i just need to replace the rotor and pads because they are detroyed.

Only problem is the rubber boot that protects the piston is gone, like i had to pull it off just to get the piston to go back in because it was ripped up and blocking its passage. Can this caliper be fixed with a new boot or do i still have to replace it? thanks

 

I don't believe the boot is a replaceable part.

Sounds like you will be replacing it sooner rather than later... That protective boot is there for a reason, just like your cv joint boots..

I think you might need to follow the sage advice of some people here...

 

Your caliper is seized. You need to replace the caliper. Unless you can rebuild it yourself by purchasing a caliper kit. I dont recommend it. Too many parts inside a rear caliper (because of the self-adjusting cable brake mechanism).

 

You need to replace the rotor, caliper and pads for that corner of the car. Pads come as an axle set so might as well change the other side too. A replacement caliper goes for about $55+core at autozone, all the parts together will be around $150 depending on what brand the parts are.

 

oh cool, only 55 bucks, thats not to bad. I already paid Jason $16X.XX for some brembo rotors and axxis pads. I'll go over to autozone or pepboys and see when they can have a caliper for me and i'll replace everything once I got all the parts. thanks