Beware of corroded caliper slide pins - not covered by warrant

[Jeremy03Sport]

Well I brought my vehicle to get serviced today because of a brake issue. I had the pads on one wheel worn down to nothing. I assumed a caliper issue, which should be covered by warranty. Turns out the slide pins were corroded and determined to have caused the problem. The company handling warranties for Toyota informed me that slide pins on calipers are considered to be fasteners, which are not covered by warranty. I am now footing the bill for a complete front brake job on a 3 year old vehicle because it wasn't designed to handle the corrosion onset from the weather in a midwestern state. Today I am an unhappy Toyota customer that paid for a useless extended warranty. I'm glad they're willing to put my and my family's well being in danger because they won't select a material for slide pins that will resist corrosion.

 

[toybox]

How many miles were on the pads?


FWIW, I just did mine at 30k and had a paper thin amount of lining on both sides (whew! just made it). The slide pins I noticed were not really corroded but not as clean as I'm used to seeing. I cleaned then up real good with some brake cleaner and wiped them good. I'm sure if I do this each time I will have no problem.

Now the rotors, that is a different story, warped again. I'm going for aftermarket rotors soon.

 

[Jeremy03Sport]

The corrosion isn't related to mileage, but I have 53,000 miles and still had half the wear left on all pads except the one that had the hang up. There was only about 1/16" of pad left. At what point do wear sensors start hitting the rotor? Does toyota put wear sensors on their pads?

 

[greasefingers]

I lubed my slide pins with brake grease.

 

[mjbuzby]

my caliper just ate the left side of my pad twice as fact as the other. i believe the caliper to be stuck or hanging cause it pulls to the left ever so slighty. ill be taking it to the dealer tomorrow. how do i know that they are corroded, i have always taken the brakes to be seviced by no one else.

i hope i dont have to fight the dealer. i was about 200 miles away and it started scraping on the drivers side and was 10 at night and nothing around so i took it easy home and havent drivent it since. the right side has about 50 percent left.

so bottom line how will i know that they are corroded?if they are not how do i make sure that they replace both calipers and not just one?


thanks

 

[Coralkillah]

Check your calipers, I recently tried to do a brake job on my 03 and when I removed the right front caliper, I found that one of the pistons was rusted solid and it froze the piston in place.

This caused one side of the pad to wear down (normally) to about 1-2/16" where the the other (rusted stuck) side of the same pad had about HALF left. the opposite pad had worn down to about 1-2/16".

Brakecleen did NADA to it, neither did hammering the s%&t out of it with a mallet. It was frozen with rust. and actually the piston (cups) on that side of the caliper were completely rusted on the inside (the part that the pad plate presses against.

I had 59K miles at the time. 260$ got me a brand new caliper shipped from 1st Toyota Parts.

I ddin't inquire as to whether this was a warranty but it seems to me that had I caught it ealier, it might have been as this is the FIRST time replacing brake pads.

Rotors were OK btw.

 

[mjbuzby]

so at 96500 mile they replaced the calpier just the caliper as the rotors never have been replaced nor turned im having them replace them as well $750(for everything) i hope that these rotors last as long 96k isnt too bad esp for my driving habits and from what i gather here thats triple what others have gotten so im cool
see ya and thanks

buzby

 

[DaveinCleveland]

More Caliper problems

72k miles and my 03 4runner has 2 frozen calipers. Every evening after driving home in the midwest snow I hosed off the undercarrige. Warranty is gone and I don't expect toyota to pay for the repair but I am disappointed in the quality.

 

[Jeremy03Sport]

more frozen calipers

Just read through this old thread and thought I'd update it. I've now replace 3 of 4 calipers because they froze up. Fortunately, I did get toyota to cover them Problem was I couldn't get them to replace the 4th before it failed and before my warranty ran out. just purchased my extended warranty, but it doesn't cover brakes.

 

[wolfgang]

I thought warrantees covered everything but wear parts (belts, brake pads, wiper blades) and trim? Seems the calipers and pins would be covered - perhaps not the rotors though.