I have to ask....are those two, more cylindrical pieces for the caliper guide pins or where do they go? I am confused. Sorry no pic, just the link

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Disc-Brake-C...FVhHUX&vxp=mtr

 

Yes, those little rubber pieces go on the pins. They're technically called an anti-rattle grommet or something like that. I used the wrong grease once and those swelled up and seized up my rear calipers, I removed them for a few days while I ordered new ones and damn my brakes were noisy!

 

Yup. Don't use a petroleum based grease on those. It will cause the rubber to swell.

use a silicone based grease. I forget which pin the rubber grommets are on. I think the bottom pin

 

Wow, Thanks guys! I had no idea. My right rear caliper is frozen/freezing and I noticed the other night the bottom pin did not have that little black piece on it like the top one did. In fact, I can't even remove that bottom pin from the caliper. I had to remove the entire bracket assembly off the hub, then pull the pin/caliper out and away from that to clear the rotor.


When I got done looking around I tried putting that caliper pin back into the female part of the bracket and no dice! I ended up using grease in the hole and a pliers to bend the rod a little and it went in; there was slight resistance but not total like before! It's still missing the little black piece though so that will be getting ordered here ASAP!


I am hoping these little fixes will save me from doing the calipers since they may or may not be frozen. Not that it's all that difficult but still money saved if it's something simple like these. I will replace them and see what that does.


To be continued....

 

Replace the pins! They can have a slight bend that causes issues also. Shine a flashlight into the caliper bracket and make sure part of the rubber piece isn't still in there. If you have any resistance, clean out the bracket and possibly replace the slide pins.

The rubber piece is only on the top pin on each side.

In tracking down my frozen rear caliper issue last winter I ran into: 1) swollen grommet from wrong grease 2) dust boots not properly seated causing moisture into sliding pins 3) bent sliding pin.

I spent way too much time taking apart the rear brakes last year, lol.

 

Honestly...just replace the entire caliper. I don't even bother with trying to relube them anymore. I've had three calipers with the pins seized badly in the bore. I just replaced them.


I'm on rockauto.com and reman rear calipers for 07's are $30 each plus core.

 

I had no idea those things cause such an issue! I did order the new rubber pieces today so hopefully they are in by Monday; my right rear pads have about 1 millimeter of meat left so I will have to put on the new pads and rotors and hope the caliper doesn't eat those up too

If these little fixes don't work I will know right away if dust starts piling up again. ANd like Mustnag said, it's cheap. I am just cheaper

 

+1 to what see guys said. Mine seized so bad I couldn't get them out...some knucklehead used wrong grease at a shop before I got it.

Had to replace 1 rear shoe. And barely got the other one out. Air compressor and impact ratchet did the trick but owwee hat was pin was Hhhoooottt!

Moral of story use right grease. Replace pins and especially those grommets with change.

Good question! Welcome to the club of rear brake fixes.

 

That $75 core charge tho How easy is the return and do you lose a lot to shipping? Otherwise that's a pretty good deal for an easy swap out. You can even get them loaded with pads. Just hit them with some caliper paint before install, because in my experience, remanned calipers are stripped of the coating applied at the factory and tend to rust.

Makes me wonder how many people replace the whole "frozen caliper" when the problem is really just messed up slide pins.

 

Yeah, the core charge is high but just motivation to get them swapped out and returned. They do give you 6 months to return them for credit.

They also offer discounted UPS labels. You go to the site, request one, and the cost of the label is discounted from the core charge once it's returned. IIRC is was $7 or so. Pretty hassle free as I just used the boxes they shipped them in.

Rockauto.com does offer 5% discount codes as well if you google search.


I do. My pins were definitely always the issue. In the beginning I used to clean them up and rebuild them, but later on I'd just replace the entire caliper. Was just quicker for me.

Plus I used to take the opportunity to paint up the new calipers really nicely. For 170K miles...I have some sexy OEM rear brakes.