January 19, 200719 yr Car was bought from a friend who had recently had new calipers and rotors put on the front. The caliper and rotor looks real new so I believe him. But the one caliper is sticking and I'm sure I can't take it back to the guy that did the job, it's been several months (the car sat for 2 or 3 months before I bought it in October and I had to pull an engine and trans swap so I just started driving it). Any suggestions for what to do? I guess I'll try working the piston back and forth and try pulling the seal back and spraying WD40 or CRC in there. Any other thoughts/ TIA.
January 19, 200719 yr Don't use wd-40, get a little packet of caliper grease at a parts store. Detach the caliper bolt, swing out the caliper (you'll have to wiggle it to push the pads back a bit), and slide the caliper off the pin. Then clean off the pin and get some new grease all up on there. If the piston itself is sticking, you should probably have it rebuilt/replaced. A seal kit is like $20. The part number for that might be this: 26297FA001
January 19, 200719 yr Author Bump. No one else has any ideas, or agrees or disagrees with my approach (or has tired anything similiar in the past)?
January 19, 200719 yr definitely do not spray WD-40 down there unless you're going to pull it apart and regrease everything (which isn't hard to do). you can rebuild the caliper if this problem seems baffling. caliper rebuild kits are only a few dollars and it's easy to do. push piston out, replace seal around piston, clean piston bore out and reassemble with the new boot. it's very easy to do. the most annoying part is bleeding the brakes after you're done. you could try just compressing the piston all the way in to free it up. or try working it back and forth a few times. i can't think of a good way to pull back the rubber boot and get in there enough to make a difference. the boot is held in by a metal clip, i guess you could try to pull that out...but heck if you do that you're one step away from rebuilding the caliper. if you are going to grease it, i think i'd way to compress the piston all the way, remove the boot and get a needle grease gun attachment to get grease all down in the bore, if it would even fit though i'm not sure.
January 19, 200719 yr [...]But the one caliper is sticking and I'm sure I can't take it back to the guy that did the job, it's been several months (the car sat for 2 or 3 months before I bought it in October and I had to pull an engine and trans swap so I just started driving it). Any suggestions for what to do? I guess I'll try working the piston back and forth and try pulling the seal back and spraying WD40 or CRC in there. Any other thoughts/ TIA.Using petroleum-based products anywhere they can enter a brake hydraulic system or affect seals is a bad idea. You didn't mention the exact model, but if this '95 Impreza has ABS, don't compress the piston without loosening the bleeder screw; ABS doesn't like to have contaminated fluid pushed back into the hydraulic control unit, and if the piston is stuck there's a good chance the fluid isn't in great shape. It would be a good idea to flush the brake lines with fresh fluid, possibly even before the caliper is repaired.
January 20, 200719 yr i also have the same problem ,where is a good place to get rebuilt kits for the caliper ?
January 20, 200719 yr We ran the piston through it's complete range of motion about 8-10 times this morning, and that seems to have fixed the problem. As for bleeding the brakes in an ABS car, what is the proper way to do it? Do we need to tell the ABS to active in any way to get fresh fluid into it? Keith
January 22, 200719 yr Author Let me add to Keiths statement that I also pulled back the boot and poured in the pistion a small amount of brake fluid before working the piston back and forth. And I bled the system as best as I could before hand.
January 22, 200719 yr We ran the piston through it's complete range of motion about 8-10 times this morning, and that seems to have fixed the problem. As for bleeding the brakes in an ABS car, what is the proper way to do it? Do we need to tell the ABS to active in any way to get fresh fluid into it? Keith there is nothing bizzare about bleeding the brakes on a subaru. Just bleed them normally, though for some reason subaru likes you to start at the closest wheel and not the farthest. Some ABS systems can get kind of odd. nipper
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