I went to NTB tonight to get an alignment and balance. They said the shaking and veering to the right was caused by my right rear brake caliper being seized. I have 52K miles on an 04 G35x.

What causes this?

Is this a normal thing to happen?

I just bought the car last week so I will try to get the dealer to fix it free.

Thoughts anyone?

 

Brake fluid never being bleed/replaced. It asorbs moisture which causes rust internally. if it veers to the right, means the LEFT caliper is stuck.

 

I had a situation where I couldn't diagnose why the car was pulling to the right. It turned out to be radial pull on my left front tire. But for a while, I thought it might have been a stuck caliper. But if it's shaking and feels held back (like a brake caliper is stuck, lol) then that might be it.

Brake calipers are covered under warranty?

 

If the caliper was frozen for any amount of time the pad would have been eaten up and damage to the rotor would have occurred. You would have heard the scraping noise and alot of dust and metal on the rim. It may not be the piston that froze just the guiding pins got debris under the rubber boot preventing the caliper from retracting. Take a look and slide rubber off, clean the pin and apply new lube and recover.

 

I had similar issues since Oct 2009. My right front brake kept holding onto the rotor. when you put it on the lift the right front won't rotate freely.

I took it to a shop (TP), who replaced the pad, calipers and hose ($700)
Had 6-7 visits and countless hours wasted, where tried to resolve the issue.

But still no resolution, so finally took it to the dealer, and he told me that the brake booster is bad (another $900)

So after spending nearly $1600 I am hoping it will be fixed.

TP shop claimed they will refund the money, but not in full.
Will be taking the case to the Shop Claims dept asking for a full refund for parts that were replaced which were not needed.

Now I am stuck with cheap after market parts for no fault of mine.

 

Duno if this helps, but i was replacing my rear pads and the rear pad guiding mechanism was stuck. Sprayed some brake cleaner directly into one of the holes for the bolt(dont know the technical term) in the caliper. Buncha gunk came out, and smacked it with rubber mallet and seemed to free it up.

 

Pads-$50
Caliper-$56
Hose-$2


Dont ever go back to that shop.

 

Pretty common with cast iron floating calipers. Either the floating guide pins seize, or the piston corrodes and seizes.

I had to replace a seized caliper last week. Fortunately, rear calipers are cheap. I got a reman from rock auto for $50 and replaced it in less than an hour.


The key is to catch the seized caliper before it chews up the rotor and pads to the point where a caliper replacement is now a full blown brake job. Yearly brake fluid bleeding and inspection/lubrication of the calipers can help with this.