+1, I also had a stuck rear brake caliper, piston was cocked sideways and stuck in place. Had brand new pads and rotor on it, but it fried the pad.

Rockauto will hook you up, you will need to ship back the core and pay for shipping both ways though. No parts store in my area had one in stock anyway. Make sure you pay attention to AWD/RWD when ordering, they are different. The caliper is the same, but the mounting bracket is different. (ask me how I know)

Pretty easy job though.

 

Only for 2005 is that an issue. The 2005 AWD for some stupid reason has 03-04 brakes on it.


All 2005-2007 coupes, 2005-2006 RWD sedans and the 2006 AWD have the same brakes on all 4 corners.


No idea why Infiniti left the 2005 AWD with the previous gen's brakes.

 

Yea I looked up calipers, they seem cheap enough. I'm thinking of getting stainless steel hoses all around as well. My motorcycle had a sticking caliper and SS lines really help to keep it working well; keeps the pressure actuating the caliper rather than expanding the rubber hoses. When the dealership "did the brakes" they really didn't do as thorough a job as I would have. Generally, I replace the rotors along with the pads so as to not cause unusual wear on the pads, it's clear to me they didn't.

 

yes, they are the ones that sit vertically paired, aligned somewhat to the pad.

 

Good info, didn't realize it was only 2005 AWD had the 03-04 brakes.

Luckily, I just used my old mounting bracket on with the "new" rebuilt caliper. Both calipers had the same four digit number cast/stamped into it and appeared identical, so at least the caliper is interchangeable. The mounting bracket and rotor size is different for sure, like you said. The AWD/03-04 mounting bracket was to small to clear rubbing on the 05 RWD rotor.

Thanks for the info!

 

Well, I took out the caliper pins cleaned them up and put new grease on them. They seem to work OK however I did notice the caliper piston had some surface rust around where it contacts the pad and down inside that area. The Missouri safety inspection I got with the car mentioned some issue with the front left/right rear brakes: I think this is what the dealership was attempting to "fix" by "doing brake work". To be on the safe side I'll probably get at least that caliper; but should I get both rears? How about rotors?

 

Was a recent debate on this on another forum as to how true this claim was. The theory sounds great, but some guys presented technical arguments against it that kinda changed my mind as to how much good rubber hoses actually expand. It made enough sense that now I wonder....

 

Stainless steel hoses do wonders on my motorcycle; but that's a very simple system: master cylinder, 3 feet of line, caliper. I figure it couldn't hurt anything to upgrade the car.

 

Nope, doesn't hurt at all. I have them on my Mustang,

 

Nope, doesn't hurt at all. Had them on my Mustang and about 10 different sport bikes.

Funny thing, on the bikes, I could tell a huge difference. Probably because I was replacing the majority of the brake fluid path from rubber to stainless steal lines. On cars, I've never noticed much or any difference with stainless hoses, probably because you are only replacing a short piece of the brake line with stainless, and the rest is a metal tube already, especially for the rear brakes.

But either way, doesn't hurt.

 

It was like night and day replacing my bikes brake hose too, but I was replacing a 30 year old hose.

SS hoses for these cars aren't too pricey are they?

 

That was the basic thought as well.

So what a guy did (and I don't have as much free time to do this) as take a brake hose, figure out the ID and then figure out how much more fluid could fill this volume if the hose expanded 10% during hard braking. He then took this volume and calculated how much longer of a stroke of the MC was required to fill this volume up. (these are actually pretty easy calcs to do) The end result, was not much more. Then you take into consideration how much that extra 1mm of stroke translated in pedal movement when you pressed the brakes, and it was maybe 1/8" or so. The debate then focuses on if this was even noticeable by a driver.

A huge consensus was that the reason so many feel an increase when swapping to SS lines was because they were forced to give their brakes a VERY good bleed in the process of installing them. So what they felt was the effect of fresh brake fluid, vs a reduction in hose expansion.

When I installed them on my car, I didn't notice much of a difference.

But again, it's not an argument against the lines. They are realtivly cheap and offer good insurance against failures.

 

I imagine that a lot of times people who notice a big improvement in braking performance going to a stainless hose have replaced very old hoses, like 30 or 40 years old. In such cases there would definitely be an improvement; but in such cases going with a new rubber line would offer significant braking performance upgrades as well.

 

I agree. Old hoses as well as old fluid.

I bleed my brakes yearly and always feel a slight improvement. I wonder how many people are driving around with brake fluid that is 4-5+ years old...or more?

 

Lots.