I have a Camaro clip on my 52 with discs. I just put in new pads and noticed that the driver side piston was noticeably hard to press back into the caliper. Now when I panic stop it pulls towards the passenger side before I get both fronts to lock up. Do I have a bad caliper? Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
yes You can put back the old worn pad and exercise the calipper Press back the piston and all the way then press the brake pedal till its all the way oute and press it back again till it moves frealy
Naaah dont think so ...guess its possible but i think its the calipper here where its cold and damp you have to exercise the calipers almost every time you change pads
I agree about the hoses. I had the same problem with a O/T chevy truck. However the old pad trick would be cheaper and worth a try.
I'd just replace both calipers... The driver's side one is probably froze.. Rebuilt calipers for Camaros are cheap.. 14.99 per side.. I'd spend the money..
Yes its the proper way to do it but...or was 20 years ago. Today a 14.99 caliper is probably rebuilt by a blind child labourer with bad parts so.... The exercise way is the fast cheap lazy way not maby the best but it works as long as the caliper dont leak
GM calipers are easy to rebuild, but the kits might be as much as a rebuilt caliper. I just don't trust someone else to do my calipers. Buying new ones is one way to go if you haven't done many of them. If you ever want to blow out a caliper and don't have the pads around, use a scrap piece of wood, anything will do. Bob
I don't generally have much use for over the counter reman parts but I've installed hundreds of calipers and never had one defective. I usually buy the loaded ones. I got the ones on my rpu from a dirt track supply store, around $35 per IIRC, new ones too, not reman. The kit and the piston would cost that much.
I would highly recommend changing brake hoses. They get very hot and take a "set" and when disturbed, as in changing pads, they often break inside and cause problems. But then, how much is your car worth and how much is your life worth? A few bucks spent in the right place is a worth while.
More than likely the caliper, but don't be too quick to dismiss the brake hoses either. They do go bad internally. I had that problem with an OT truck. In a panic stop it would pull hard to the left. Eventually the RH caliper locked up tight. The RH hose looked like new on the outside but cutting it apart revealed the inside was like a bad artery, totally clogged from the hose breaking down.
if the calipers are just grabbing and they are releasing the hoses are usually ok but replacing them is a good move then you know what you have if a different issue comes up.
On GM cars, the pistons rarely go bad. Fords and Chryslers didn't have as good a dust shield on theirs and I saw many with pitted pistons with the chrome finish destroyed. GM caliper pistons had a different finish them too. I believe that the last caliper kit I bought for a GM car was $18 and this was maybe 8 years ago. I've bought lots of remanufactured calipers for customers cars over the years and only saw some bad ones where the dust boot was installed improperly. I took an extra 3 minutes, blew it out and reassembled it the right way. Bob
so check this out. The car sat for 2 days and when I got in it this morning it stopped straight on multiple attempts. After about 10 minutes of driving I hit the brakes again and noticed it pulled again, but not as bad. Does this change my situation?
Something is sticky... if it was my car, I'd be adressing the calipers and hoses. Gotta disconnect the hoses to deal with the calipers anyway, may as well put new ones on. Bob
I've run across this twice in the last year when replacing brake pads. The pads hang up on the rotor & don't retract. So one side may have the pad dragging on the rotor while the other has to travel. Check the notches on the pads where they ride in the caliper. I've had to clearance a couple sets with a dremel & die grinder to get them to work properly. Dragging pad shelled out one rotor in about a year. Good luck, Worken2much
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