One sign that you’ve got a stuck or seized caliper is that your brake pads aren’t wearing evenly. That’s “caliper pin stuck.” A STUCK CALIPER & UNEVEN BRAKE PAD WEAR And that means your caliper won’t slide, and the outside brake pad won’t fully squeeze your rotor. One or both of the little rails the caliper slides along - the caliper guide pins - get sluggish or seized. But often the problem is a stuck caliper pin. Something could be wrong with the brake line or piston. And as you drive, you may hear squeaking when you brake, or just feel like something isn’t right. I found this animation in a YouTube video that does a nice job showing how the caliper slides…Ī stuck brake caliper means the caliper isn’t sliding right. The upshot? You’re squeezing the rotor from two sides equally. That sliding pulls a second brake pad against the outside of the rotor. As the rotor blocks the piston’s movement, the caliper itself slides back towards the car along two little rails called guide pins. When you brake, you push fluid into into the caliper, forcing a piston into a brake pad, and the pad into the spinning disc, known as a rotor. The genius is the design of a disc brake caliper, a crescent-shaped assembly of parts next to your wheel. You press a pedal and friction pads squeeze spinning discs attached to your wheels.
In my view they won for the right reason: simple, ingenious design. They’re commonplace these days, having replaced drum brakes during the 1970s and 1980s as the go-to way of stopping a car. My old Toyota had “floating caliper” disc brakes. That experience left me with admiration and gratitude for the disc brake system. Later, the only evidence of the accident (other than my buckled car roof) was a bit of paint on one of the sign’s wooden posts. As it came to a stop, it slowly rolled over and leaned upside down against the sign. I slammed my brakes and my Toyota began bouncing, like a stone skipping across a pond. Then I over-corrected, veering back across the highway and into a grass field, heading straight towards a large highway sign reading: VANDENBERG AFB NEXT RIGHT. My car popped onto the highway, crossed both lanes and went into the median. I woke up going full-speed on the gravel shoulder and panicked. Dean Edell on the radio, when I fell asleep. Years ago, I was driving north on Highway 101 in California, half-listening to Dr. Here’s a link to the Carlson sales support page, if you need to order new caliper pins and dust boots. They’re problems that can come from reusing old parts during brake jobs, or using the wrong brake grease. So a stuck caliper pin and its nasty sibling, a seized caliper pin, are things lots of people deal with. People googled that phrase and similar ones, like “stuck brake caliper pin,” over 30,000 times last year. “Caliper pin stuck” isn’t a phrase that rolls off the tongue, but thanks to Google it’s probably why you’re reading this.