I'm having terrible luck with brakes...

Will replacing it fix my problem, or is the caliper probably shot again?

I'm having terrible luck with brakes...

Some of you may remember my stuck brake issue a while back -- my uncle rebuilt the caliper for me..it worked for a few months, then it started sticking again (shuddering on braking, terrible smell, dragging brake), so I replaced both calipers, pads, and the rotor on the problem side. That was several months ago. It worked great until yesterday. After 20-23 miles of driving, it starts to stick again -- not bad, but bad enough that if I creep forward about six inches and push in the clutch, the car will stop like I was touching the brake.

I assume I'm going to have to replace the caliper (this is the other side, incidentally..) again, which is annoying -- it has a lifetime warranty, but still..what could be causing it to die this fast?

bad brake fluid/

This is weird -- I can go 20+ miles and it feels fine sometimes..other times, it starts to shudder. The other day, it felt pretty bad, then it felt fine -- on the same trip..go figure.

Should I replace pads, turn the rotor on the bad side and flush the brake fluid, or..?

Are you greasing up the caliper bolts?

is everything straight? perhaps something is bent... and causes the lock up... bolt maybe? mounting bracket?

and yea... when was the last time u changed ur fluid? is it dot3? or did u use some other type?

make sure you are greasing it with a hitemp grease. normal plain old cheap grease will breakdown under high temp conditions.

Use the blue stuff... well it's purplish blue... it's a non locking grease... an ebrake is I think a hard wired and not using any liquid...

I don't think he means the e-brake.

A few things.... When you rebuilt the calipers.. Did you or your uncle look at the sides of the pistons and chambers to check for scoring? If you have not had your brake fluid flushed or you cant remember when it was done last, you need to do it. Whenever you have to replace one rotor its best to replace both the same time. Also, do you have ABS?

Both calipers were replaced with new ones several months ago -- the rebuilt one isn't there anymore.

I haven't had the brake fluid flushed; maybe that's the problem. Whatever I've added when we've bled the brakes has been DOT3. I don't have ABS.

I just drove 20 miles without any problems..on a slight hill, the car will roll..but it doesn't always..

So -- I need to flush the brake fluid, replace pads, probably replace (or turn) rotors, and grease stuff with hitemp grease..thanks guys -- hopefully that'll fix everything =)

I've been using $25 Advance Auto rotors and cheap pads -- without spending $100 on a rotor, what's my best bet?

Hmm.. does the car pull to one side or the other when you brake or roll? I wonder if the clutch might still be engaging or sticking enough to keep the car from rolling. Hydraulic brake systems don't really fail unless your car is ancient or theres some other weird reason. Even if there is a failure it would usually be attributed to some ABS part, but you don't have ABS.

I would put Toyota pads on (I think they're 45$ for the set). AAP pads aren't that great and when I got rotors for my brothers car they needed to be surfaced. I wouln't spend a ton of money until you know for sure though.

You have a link to the original thread?

It's definitely the brakes -- it hasn't done anything weird for the last two days..rolls fine, doesn't pull, etc. The clutch was installed less than 15,000 miles ago. When the brakes were sticking, it was the front left side -- I could feel a shuddering vibration from the front right wheel, and even more so under braking. The one time it was pretty bad, I could feel heat coming off the brakes, and it would pull hard to the left under braking (the right side was overheating). No problems now..so I don't know what it was -- I will flush the fluid, though..change pads, turn the rotor, etc.

I'm thinking of putting performance pads on -- would you recommend Toyota OEM over EBC?

I'm not sure if I had a thread just on my brake issue, or if I mentioned it here and there..but almost everything was replaced (left rotor, both sides' pads, both calipers -- the right rotor was still ok).

i-c

I'm going to put Green EBCs on my car when I replace my front pads and rotors soon. I'm told they're a slight improvement over the OEM pads (and I will be using them with slotted rotors) but I wouldn't expect anything significant. I'll be using them mostly for the "extended life" claim. The only complaint I hear about them is that they are a little noisy and squeal badly when glazed. If not the EBC pads though, I would definately use the OEM Toyota pads because they're decent and have lasted longer than I would expect on my car.