Originally Posted By: Joel_MD
Originally Posted By: Miller88
I always tell myself to do new calipers but I lube the sliders and drive the piston in and out a handful of times and convince myself I'm good.
Then a week later I am replacing calipers because they are sticking
Just recently I was doing the brakes on my Dodge Ram while sipping coffee, and my thoughts turned philosophical.
If you look at how the brake hydraulic system works, when you bleed the brakes you're getting nice, fresh fluid everywhere except down around the caliper piston. Unless you disconnect your old caliper to pour the old fluid out when you do a brake job (who does that?), the fluid inside the caliper body is below the bleeder screw. I imagine the fluid down around the piston tends to get waterlogged and contaminated, and never gets refreshed when bleeding the system.
Whatever the reason, replacing calipers has always served me well. When you replace pads, rotors, and calipers you basically have all new brakes on your old car.
That is an interesting thought: when doing a flush, pop the caliper off, open the bleeder, press the piston in. Then drain and fill the MC, then attempt to pull fluid through the lines.
Never thought of that.
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On my Jetta it seemed to need a new caliper every 5 years--the A4 chassis seemed to have a weak spot on those rear calipers. When time came, I checked, and sure enough, one piston was hard to turn, so I replaced both. Front calipers though were original for those 11 years I had it--but they must have been getting close to the end. I really had to crank down on one bleeder the last time I touched it.
Knock on wood though, just did pads&rotors on my Camry, and the rear calipers pressed in just fine.
