This weekend I replaced my front rotors and pads due to a warped rotor. Nice new shiny thick rotors and shiny new thick pads. Now I have nice smooth braking ... but I I believe one of the calipers is now hanging up. I can tell because now the TL pulls to the right and the rotor is hot. In fact, at first I noticed a little pull to the right when bedding in the brakes.

My theory is that now that the brake piston is pushed all the way back into the caliper that there is no room to release. It's a tight fit with virtually no slop.

So, hanging caliper or too much grease on the slide pins causing drag?

What do you guys think?

Should I put the old pads back on (they are worn only about 1/2 way, would be more room for movement)?

Replace the Passenger Front caliper? (assuming it's what caused the warped rotor, though I never felt any pulling to the right, just warpedness)

 

On my 01- the brakes have never had a fluid flush in 5-6 years, so when we pushed the piston in- it backwashed some crud or got something in the seal that did whatever,
and a few weeks later-- the right caliper was not pushing evenly, not even pressure across the rotor face- as seen in the wear on cross hatch finish

caliper was 45 at the zone- got me back on the road. I still plan to replace the other side and maybe the rears becasue I drive the car in a spirited manner
You can even install Legend/NSX dual piston calipers on our cars hehehehe

 

I flushed the brake caliper before taking the old pads out and pushing the piston in. Interestingly, the left side had some issue where the fluid only trickled out, after a few pumps the fluid finally came out normally. I did not notice any gunk or anything unusual in the fluid that came out of either side.

A Honda guy told me that the rubber brake line could be corroded near the center mounting area, causing the hose to be restricted - and causing the piston to not retract all the way. Not sure how to test for that though.....

I checked prices for rebuilt caliper at AutoZone. $76!!! Nobody has it in stock, most other places are selling it for $55-$65. You musta got a deal!

Thinking of putting my half-worn pads back on. Anybody have experience with worn pads on a new rotor? Am I going to have warpage or bedding problems??

 

sounds like something bad was in the system- was the fluid really old-
a slow drip is not good- flow is normal when bleeder opened with friends foot on the brake pedal

Pull the caliper and pads back off- if the pad is rubbing the rotor will be blue and the pad glassy or severly worn
The rotors break in wear should be the same on both sides
When you remove caliper you will see how far out the piston is
I have not heard of this issue on azine- what brand of parts are you using?

 

Not sure how old the fluid was - I replaced a rear frozen caliper a few months ago and bled that caliper then. Did not bleed every caliper. Problem fixed.

I can see that the rotors are turning blue. They are hot to the touch when pulling into the garage after a 30 mile ride home today. I intentionally did not use the brakes much on the ride home to see if the rotors were heating up. The rears were cool to the touch. Is it normal to have 'some' heating of a rotor if no brakes are applied?

Am going to pull it apart in a few minutes are take a closer look. Maybe bleed again. Starting to wonder about the restricted brake line issue. Hummmmm....

I don't expect the piston to be out at all since I've got new rotors and pads. That's the issue really, not much play there. Oh, they are Federated brand. I've used same brand on our Explorer and Grand Cherokee with no issues in the past 5 years.

 

Since its hard to believe they would make parts wider than OE: its more likely you have a caliper issue or added OE shims on top of the new pads own shims
too much pin grease- what all did you do???

The fact one siezed should have been first clue- and when you only bled one- bad news
Always do them all
and its LF driver front LF RF RR LR bleed order

 

SO when you did bleed the 1 caliper
you did not flush the entire system??? is that correct?

 

Tore everything down and found two issues. One bonehead issue that 01TL4TL nailed - I used the original shims on top of the smaller bonded-on shims that part of the new pads. That made the new pads with new rotors just a little too tight.

Also, one of the slide pins on the right side was binding. Removed, cleaned, regreased. The pins are fully seated and don't slide out easily as the grease seems to keep them from wanting to come out (like having your finger stuck in a bottle). Seems like there should be a little play or perhaps a tiny air hole. Of course, that would just clog up. Maybe not super critical that they move as easily as a bearing.

Brakes seem to be OK now, though I'll need to do a longer test drive. I'll do a full flush this weekend - Not sure why I didn't flush it before, maybe I ran out of time.

Thanks for the responses 01tl4tl !

 

slide pins? are you running brembo fronts?
for brembos:
the 2 retainer pins that go thru the holes on the top of the pad backing have to go from the inside of the caliper pointing out- they have a little spring ring on them as keepers

Or on normal TL - do you mean the springy retainer clips on the bracket that the pads end tips fit into? Its a good idea to replace them if weak, under 4 bucks each at dealer

see excellent brake pad bedding instructions by excelerate and MrHeelToe
see their post or websites for detail in the tech section

 

Normal TL. Caliper pins - some people refer to them as a "caliper bolt" . The 'bolts' with the rubber boot around them. Two of them. When fully seated, they don't want to move out due to the 'suction' created by the grease.

 

you only grease the unthreaded part of the head/top of the bolt- suction lol

 

Say what? The slide pins? I've always greased them up good. You don't grease the bottom of them? Just where the rubber boot that covers them? I think we are not talking about the same thing here. I'll find a picture when I get time.