colinzarbough

Hey all. So, I'm assuming my caliper is frozen. I have a 2003 Acura tl Type-S with about 109000 miles on it, and just replaced the rear pads on both sides about a month ago. So I was driving home tonight and started hearing a banging noise on my left rear side when I would hit the brakes. I noticed the car was jumping a bit, and was wondering what was going on. I just thought I should try and get home by driving carefully and not braking much. As I drove about 5 more miles, when I applied the brake the next noise was a loud grinding noise. I got on an off ramp and hit the brakes and then the rear brake started making a bang, bang, bang, bang, which I assume was the anti-lock braking system pulsing. I came to a stop and my left back rear wheel just locked up. I had to basically drive and drag the rear wheel around the corner which eventually just popped. The other wheels turn, not the back rear. THE WEIRD THING IS.. when i hit reverse it will unlock and i can drive again until i hit the brakes. I didn't realize this until i had it parked at a meter and just tried it out. Not sure if this is the caliper or the ABS locking up. The VSA, ABS, and Traction control lights all stay on. I am going to have it towed back to my house. Could it be the parking brake not releasing and me not knowing it? What's the deal??? Thanks for any help.

totaledTL

Did you take a look from underneath? Probably obvious... maybe caliper mtg. bolt(s) backed out-

piggylover1985

+1, recheck the rear brake work that you did to it recently.

01tl4tl

ck the inner pads on the rear
each should have 2 raised tabs- one on each end- one tab holds the noise maker and the other is empty

IF there is a 3rd raised tab in the top middle of the pad, thats making the pad hit the caliper piston and cocks the pad out, only makes contact with half the rotor
many problems arise

everyone can ck theirs easy- as many makers all used this same wrong backing plate-its for RL wirh different park brake than us
Look under the car at rear rotors- if half the width is crusty and the other half shiny--guess what !!

colinzarbough

hey everyone. So I figured it out. I had painted my calipers a few weeks back, bright red, and someone must have assumed they were worth something as they tried to steal my rear driver tire. I found this out because someone in traffic pulled up next to me and said I was missing four out of the five lugnuts on my car. The only thing keeping the tire on was the locking nut. I am assuming that whomever did this, also loosened my lower caliper bolt. I had tightened it to the proper torque when I put the brake pads on last month, so it could have been me, but too much of a coincidence. Anyways.... what was happending was this. With the lower caliper bolt missing, whenever I applied the brakes, the caliper would jump forward and ended up bending the dust shield. It bent so bad that it was dragging on the inside of the rim, and eventually punched holes in the rim. I went out and purchased two new caliper bolts, as the top was bent from all the pressure, and had to cut away a lot of the dust shield. Everything is working fine now except that I will have to purchase a new rim, get the tire replaced which luckily is under warranty, and replace a cracked back brake pad. All in all, happy it was only this. Total repair will be about $100. Luckily I had a friend with a trailer that picked it up for me, which was about 40 miles to my house, and I am handy enough to fix these problems. Thanks for all the input. Take a look at the pics below. Insane what that dust shield did to my rim. Thanks again.


http://home.ubalt.edu/colin.zarbough/carproblems.html

pitmen

glad to hear you find the problems and you never got injured from this!!

gold2003tl (90)

wow thats just horrible, low life people trying to steal stuff. glad your able to solve the problem. the locking lug nut is what saved you from having stuff stolen.

01tl4tl

with 4 missing lugs, the rim motion would have loosened the caliper bolt

Unless the thief was pissed when they got to the last lug and it was a lock--and them with no special chisel
BUT
they happen to carry the right size socket to loosen the caliper bolt... just to dick with you! It could happen

01tl4tl

comprehensive insurance covers this type of theft and damage
Its more than 100 bucks for a rim and the repairs you need

Also good note for all-
dont jump to conclusions when your car acts up- start threads on a problem with your diagnosis ...
until you at least visually inspect whats going on

My Car Wont Turn!!
oh its got a flat tire~

colinzarbough

haha. yeah, def. jumped the gun. Had all the hallmarks of a frozen caliper from the symptoms, just assumed that was the problem.