Honolulu
Well-Known Member
I haven't been driving my coupe for some months, er, about a year. I got a safety check as required by the State of Hawaii, though the tech told me "you should check you odometer, it's got the same mileage as last year, and it sounds like your exhaust has a hole in it".
I know the odometer is AWOL but have been dreading going in after it, got big hands... and the exhaust always sounds a little loud. Not likely to drop it to check for holes.
But the message for today comes from my noticing the car didn't coast easily to a stop, it had a little abruptness to the last moment. Pretty clear that one brake was dragging, and holding my hand over the hubs after a ride confirmed it was the left rear. Wife stomped pedal, fluid shoots out, may not be the hose. One pad was almost gone, the other okay... sure sign of a stuck caliper piston. Spent hours with the vise, hammer and compressor to get the second piston out, but it finally creeped out and POP! I had a rag in there so it wouldn't get dinged, and it cleans up okay. Tommorow my thick fingers will have to clean the bores, and I'll have to source a rebuild kit. I am tempted just to clean and reinstall, and who knows, with a little caliper grease maybe I'd get away with it.
But drive 'em, use 'em, and bleed your brakes from time to time or you may find youself like me, burning up an afternoon that could well be put to better use, and it's surely not over yet, just disassembled. Unless like Mr. Toad you think there is simply nothing so worth doing as simply messing around with rear brake calipers.
I know the odometer is AWOL but have been dreading going in after it, got big hands... and the exhaust always sounds a little loud. Not likely to drop it to check for holes.
But the message for today comes from my noticing the car didn't coast easily to a stop, it had a little abruptness to the last moment. Pretty clear that one brake was dragging, and holding my hand over the hubs after a ride confirmed it was the left rear. Wife stomped pedal, fluid shoots out, may not be the hose. One pad was almost gone, the other okay... sure sign of a stuck caliper piston. Spent hours with the vise, hammer and compressor to get the second piston out, but it finally creeped out and POP! I had a rag in there so it wouldn't get dinged, and it cleans up okay. Tommorow my thick fingers will have to clean the bores, and I'll have to source a rebuild kit. I am tempted just to clean and reinstall, and who knows, with a little caliper grease maybe I'd get away with it.
But drive 'em, use 'em, and bleed your brakes from time to time or you may find youself like me, burning up an afternoon that could well be put to better use, and it's surely not over yet, just disassembled. Unless like Mr. Toad you think there is simply nothing so worth doing as simply messing around with rear brake calipers.
