Well... after finally getting the rear brake problems under control about a month ago.. my front started acting up (noticeably) as of yesterday. 

 

When I bought this truck back in September... the previous owner was replacing the front passenger caliper the day I was picking it up. Said it was sticking. 

 

When I had the front hard lines replaced back in.. I think.. November... I had the front pads replaced (both sides - with Adaptive) because they were considerably more wore down than the driver's side as the previous owner didn't replace when he did caliper. 

 

Fast forward to yesterday and today as I started to hear scraping/grinding and felt a considerable pull to the left today. Took things apart this evening and this is what I found... on passenger side.. driver's side look decent

 

 

Back side of rotor...

 

 

I'm shopping for new pads, rotors and calipers. Does anyone have any suggestions on brands? I'm really getting tired of dealing with brakes...................... Can it be anything other than the caliper? I replaced the soft lines a couple of months ago.

Edited June 30, 20168 yr by dodgedieselnewbie

Personally I use the cheapest pad I can so not to eat the rotors. As for calipers I rebuild my own and it cost about $8 bucks a caliper to do it yourself. Really simple. As for preventing this you need to do a full tear down of the calipers about every 100k miles and clean and inspect all parts for size, fit and the seals. Simple bleeding the brakes and replacing the fluid isn't enough. Caliper pistons typically grow in size with caked brake fluid. It easy to fix and again a full rebuild kit is about $8 bucks a caliper for the few seals.

Mike.. if this caliper was replaced.. and the problem still exists.. is there something else going on here? These were brand new pads 6 months ago (less than 10k miles) Seems pretty severe to me. No noticeable issues until this week when I could hear some squealed in the last week and the hard pull just started today.

Edited June 30, 20168 yr by dodgedieselnewbie

You could replace all 4 calipers. Just about 10 times more in cost for a fully loaded caliper.

 

https://www.napaonline.com/napa/en/p/CAJLE5298/CAJLE5298_0194578043

Huh?

Rebuild the calipers yourself for low price or buy fully loaded calipers and pay a premium.

 

1 hour ago, dodgedieselnewbie said:

Mike.. if this caliper was replaced.. and the problem still exists.. is there something else going on here?

 

If you rebuild yourself you can inspect all thee parts for damage or maybe just debris. So it would be best to at least look at your current calipers full disassembled and check for problems. If the pistons are proper sized they should fall to the bottom of the body without being pushed in. As you'll see there is no seals in the caliper.

 

Look over on Rock auto, they have some good prices on rotor and pads. They have the rebuild kits for the calipers also. 

 

Maybe you have a soft line failing and it is not letting pressure off of the one side.

Edited June 30, 20168 yr by dripley

Mike walked me thru rebuilding the calipers myself. They work great with no problems like before.

 

I think it is better to rebuild them yourself as it is a better job that way.

Edited June 30, 20168 yr by JAG1

I will rebuild mine from this point forward, but my OEM calipers were in pretty rough shape.  Not work the hassle for the $30 I paid for the caliper.  

I tried and tried to rebuild the calipers from my '99.  The calipers on my truck are single piston and I couldn't' seat the boots to save my life.  There isn't a lot of info out there for this version of caliper, but what I could find is that there is a special press to seat it.  The parts are all readily available at local part stores, but in the end I gave up and bought remanned calipers from Napa.  I hope you have better luck than I.

23 hours ago, dodgedieselnewbie said:

When I bought this truck back in September... the previous owner was replacing the front passenger caliper the day I was picking it up. Said it was sticking. 

 

Now this one is doing the same thing?  Either the caliper was a bad rebuild and the piston is cocking in the cylinder, the pins the caliper slides on are binding or a hydraulic problem IE: bad hose.

 

I'd jack the front up and compare the left (driver's) side to the right (passenger) side.  Spin the wheels first to get a base feel for any resistance. If both turn freely then have some one pump the brake a few times and test. if it spins freely you have a mechanical problem. If it binds open the bleeder screw and release any pressure.  If they spin freely you probably have a  hydraulic problem.

 

If it's a mechanical problem it may only happen after the brakes get hot as in stop and go driving.  The heat causing the metal to expand and bind.  Drive the truck and do 7-10 slow downs with out stopping from 30mph to 10mph then as fast as you can jack up the right side an see how much force it take to spin the wheel.

Well... finally finished the front brake job. learned as I went that bearing/hub assembly had to come off as one.. PITA! Bought all new/reman rather than rebuild calipers.. all Napa Ultra Premium. See what happens.. hopefully no more brake work for awhile! Thanks!!!!

When I rebuilt my calipers, I put some high temperature grease under the boots so the caliper body won't rust. That's what was causing my pistons to stick in first place, piston is made out of some sort of composite material and cleaned up with carb cleaner. But I had to use fine send paper to clean the bore.