Does anyone know an inexpensive remedy for a lightly sticking caliper? I have a 96 OBW.

 

--Damien

Does anyone know an inexpensive remedy for a lightly sticking caliper? I have a 96 OBW.

 

--Damien

 

Remove the lower bolt holding the caliper. Slide the caliper off the top pin. Buy special high temp grease (at any auto store). Clean and relube slide pin. Check that the rubber bellows sealing the caliper to slide pin is OK.

You can do that with a simple ratchet set and for the price of the grease.

Good luck!

I have the same car, and every couple of weeks I will get a squeling sound coming from a wheel. Dont know which one and it will go away if I hit the brakes quickly. So I am out to the driveway to relube all those suckers.

Remove the lower bolt holding the caliper. Slide the caliper off the top pin. Buy special high temp grease (at any auto store). Clean and relube slide pin. Check that the rubber bellows sealing the caliper to slide pin is OK.

You can do that with a simple ratchet set and for the price of the grease.

Good luck!

 

Do what he says, but also pull back the seals and lube the bottom slide (the part on the caliper that the bolt you just took out rides in) because that part should slide around in the caliper. If you still have problems after that then it's the actual caliper piston, and they are not as fun to fix, but really not too bad.

 

Keith

I have the same problem, but have no brake experience. Is there a good resource online or is a chiltons, etc in my near future. Thanks

So I definately could not get my front pass. caliper off of the top pin. It spun in unison with the caliper and the bolt that it goes into. Does this mean a half frozen caliper?? I coultdn't get the caliper bracket off either (tried after pin problem). The top bolt is to close to the steering knuckle to get a rachet close to. Using an extension on a tough bolt doesn't work, pb blaster didn't help.

 

I don't even think I'm going to bother with the others/

 

My pistons are very rusty, but the seals seem to be ok. Is this going to be a problem?

the "seal" is really only the dust boot, you can't see the actual seal that holds the brake fluid in the caliper bore. but that's a good sign it's in good shape.

 

i'd keep working at it, the caliper should slide off the pin with some effort. you rotated it up first and then tried to slide it back?

 

is this the front or rear? i think you have drums in the rear but not sure. if it has the e-brake cable on it, that can cause sticking as well. make sure that's smooth and releasing all the way.

This particular squeal seems more like the "tweeter" wear indicator on your brake pads and maybe not the issue of the original poster.

I have the same car, and every couple of weeks I will get a squeling sound coming from a wheel. Dont know which one and it will go away if I hit the brakes quickly. So I am out to the driveway to relube all those suckers.

Yea I rotated it up and banged on it for a good 5 minutes.....nothing happened.

Yea I rotated it up and banged on it for a good 5 minutes.....nothing happened.

 

 

I had this on an impreza once. I just wound up taking the whole caliper and caliper bracket off and replacing them. The bracket bolts can be tough, but should come with a little force.

 

Keith

Be careful. If the caliper bracket bolts seem to take more than the usual effort to move, make sure you soak 'em well with PB Blaster or some other penetrating oil/loosening agent. They can corrode and become stuck fast. When that happens it is possible to shear off the head of the bolt when you're trying to loosen it! Don't ask me how I know this...

 

Anyway, a little corrosion penetrant goes a long way toward preventing this problem.

I need a cordless impact, or a air compressor and air impact.

To remove the caliper bracket, you can use a box end wrench and a small size sledge hammer. Put the box end on the bolt head and use moderate force taps on the other end of the wrench to loosen the bolt. (Poor man's impact wrench.)

 

Of course, soak it with penetrating oil first, and you may want to turn the front wheels to whatever side gives you the most room to work...

 

Matt

Be sure that you are trying to remove the bolt in the proper direction. If you are facing the rotor, and attempting to remove the caliper bolt from behind (i.e. the threaded portion is pointed towards you), keep in mind that you want to be applying force in the clockwise direction when viewed from your perspective.

I was going the right way, and I didn't have a open end wrench in that size (17mm iirc).

 

So get this..When I reinstalled the front pass. caliper I depressed the pistons to make it easier to get on. I then sucked some of the brake fluid out of the resivor and refilled with new dot4.

 

Now the brake pedal feels spongy I guess, never had a spongy brake pedal, but I think this is it. The car pulls way left (driver side), when I brake hard at high speeds. The brake pedal feels like it goes all the way down before anything happens (at any spped). Did I get air in the system? How?