Replaced Frozen caliper last week
So I was driving along and i got a horrible shaking / vibration in my steering wheel & throughout the car. I was only a few miles away from my house so I drove home. When I got out of the car I could smell a burnt rubber smell. I figured it was probably a break issue so I went around to all the the tires and put the back of my hand close to the breaks without actually touching the wheel. The extreme heat coming off of the front passenger side brakes was much greater compared to the others. I went online and found that a replacement caliper was only $80.00 a new rotter $50.00 & front brake pads $30.00.
The next day I went to remove the caliper, I jacked up the car and took off the front tire. Then I looked at the caliper....WOW, only two bolts holding this thing on...This will be easy....So hours later I was banging a wrench with a hammer and pissed off. Its not easy to remove these bolts without an impact wrench or a breaker bar. Eventually i got the bolts loose. before removing the bolts I pinched off the brake line with a pair of needle nose vice grips with pieces of rubber hose on the ends to protect the brake hose. With the hose clamped I removed the brake hose from the caliper. Next I removed the Caliper. Even though the caliper was stuck i was able to bang it off the rotor with a hammer. with the caliper off the rotor just slides off the lug bolts. Now that I had my caliper off I took a photo of how the break pads were installed. Its Basically two pins and two retention brackets but if you don't take a picture you might be unsure if your doing it right. Now I took my friends truck up to the auto parts store with the old caliper for the core charge of $40.00. Make sure you have the following info when you go to the parts store. Vehicle Make, model, year, engine size, TIRE SIZE, and have the caliper with you so they can use the numbers on it to match you a new one. When your getting your new stuff make sure you get some brake fluid so you can bleed the breaks later. If you don't know how to bleed brakes look it up on youtube. You might need to pick up some supplies for that as well, Its simple though, The best way is with a clear plastic hose, a gator-aid bottle, and some duct tape. Putting the new caliper brakes and rotor is the reverse of taking them off except in the end you have to bleed the brakes. Have fun and make sure you don't strip the bolts or break off the caliper bleeder valve!!!
on a scale of 1-10 for car repairs... 1 being changing the air filter & 10 being a complete engine overhaul...Id call this job a 3. Harder than changing the spark plugs but easier than replacing a fuel pump.
