Rear Brake Calipers

[Darren Montroy]

hi guys both rear brake calipers have seized, will a good clean fix the problem or will it just as easy to replace them .

[pragmatix]

A clean on its own wont do you will need to strip them down and replace the seals

[stef123]

sometimes pushing them out and winding them back in a few times helps. TBH i would rather just replace them - costs about £200 but its reassuring to have brakes you know work!

are you sure its the calipers and not the handbrake cables?

[RB2004]

I just had to replace a rear caliper and cables :( on somebody elses car

lol, ended up quite expensive,

somebody shoved new pads at some point on scored up and worn out disks.. so the pads and disks were no good on the front... then came to the back, and disks were just about at their wear limit specification.. but 1 side pad separated from its metal backplate and showed signs of cracks... so back disks and pads had to be done.

then I realised the handbrake part of the rear caliper was also siezed solid, wouldnt budge... Cable was not in great shape either.. probably cable started to stick first.. then the caliper siezed up through lack of use.

so new caliper, and 2 new brake cables.

Pagid cables costed £17.74 each I think, originally was just going to do one, but after I swapped one over, it was obvious the difference in length between new and old because of stretching.. the balance bar was not level, and thinking about it if one cable had gone other probably isnt far off and a £17 cable is cheaper than a reconditioned caliper... so ended up doing both.

Also flushed through all the old brake fluid with clean new stuff and now all is well :)

but it does seem to be a common problem.. cable starts sticking, and that leads to a siezed caliper :(

unfortunately in my case though all in all, has turned out very expensive.. but MOT wouldnt pass I dont think with 1 side having a non working handbrake.. lol handbrake was pulled up but the wheel still spun.

What had happened was, the handbrake was effectively originally stuck in the slightly on position, and it only freed itself up by wearing down the pad.. this created presumebly massive amounts of heat leading to the pad separating from its back plate and cracking.

back on topic though, as above only way to free up is to completely strip the unit down, and rebuilt.. but even then I gather the actual bit which has siezed is not really very servicable anyway.

So best off with reconditioned calipers.

to eliminate cables, remove the cable from the caliper then try to move the caliper then.. but chances are it was the cable that caused the caliper to sieze.. if indeed it is siezed.