Caliper service at 8k miles, $90

[Dianna]

BlackWorks, I had issues with my pins, that nobody noticed, which caused me to replace the pads and rotors. Made sense to have my dad ask for his to be checked to prevent the same thing from happening to him.

 

[Argyle Edison]

What do you mean that the caliper pins were having issues? How did your dad even know they were having "issues"? Did he try messing with them? There's a lot of unanswered questions here for a vehicle with only 1yr/8k on it.

That being said, without knowing entirely what's the issue here... it's hard to say what the issue and/or "fix" was.

But, IF the issue was due to one or two wonky caliper pins (I've seen a few so it's very possible) then it should have been covered under 3yr/36k bumper to bumper warranty.

As for them being "serviced" well you're not really supposed to grease them, but taking a brass brush and knocking off any rust and/or crustiness they get on them and maybe using a pocket screwdriver to clean out the bore (or a small bore snake) if they're really crusty isn't a bad idea if you're doing brakes. Sometimes they can get bad enough that trying to pull them out doesn't work well; but in my area that's very rare to see in vehicles that haven't been around at least a decade and/or a hundred or more thousand miles. Maybe it's a bit more prevalent in rust belt areas?

A single winter here will rust them up pretty bad. I had to use a hammer and drift to get mine out.

 

[Dianna]

A single winter here will rust them up pretty bad. I had to use a hammer and drift to get mine out.

Same here, 1 1/2 winters, I will check mine every rotation.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

A single winter here will rust them up pretty bad. I had to use a hammer and drift to get mine out.

What I have found is that depending on how bad the rust is, it's usually not actually the pin to bore fitting that causes the jamming up. But the pin through brake pad fit. The pads seem to get a bit cock-eyed when you press the pistons in and when they're rusty it seems to get worse (particularly the bottom pin). Usually I end up wiggling the pads around a bit as I pull the pin out and that seems to get them out.

The biggest spots I see rust that cause issues is at the ends and center, every now and then you get some rust in the bore/pin fit. The center seems to get the worst of it so when you try to pull that "bloated" center pin through it can be sticky.

But yeah, I figured the winters are rough on those pins; a bit of anti-seize or high-temp brake lube where they go through the pin bore might not be entirely out of the question in those situations.

 

[Dianna]

I didn't even think about using anti-seize. What does everyone think about using that on the pins instead of hi-temp brake grease? Seems like anti-seize would hold up better in rain/snow/salt.

 

[Dianna]

Update: I emailed the manager (service manager was of no assistance) and he has agreed to refund what they charged my dad for the brake service. I shared this link, and I'm sure I can thank you all for posting your feelings on the matter. arty: Thank you!

 

[Senorlechero]

That's good to hear, and I'm glad you contacted them instead of just writing the place off automatically.
Lot's of people seem to do that with dealership service departments, ours gets 3-400 cars daily. It'd be a little hard for all our service writers to know every single person and their history the moment they drive in.