Brakes sticking/rubbing a little

[soldave]

Finally drove my S5 TII to the garage today and left it there to get its inspection and get registered to be road legal. This is the first time it's been driven on the road in about a year, and the brakes were feeling a little mushy. Am sure they need new brake fluid, and also am going to order new pads & rotors. But one thing I noticed was that the brakes were sticking on a little. If I was coming to a set of lights I could get off the gas and put it in neutral and it would come to a stop (as if there was light pressure on the brakes). When I got to the garage I also felt the rotors at the front and they were abnormally warm. Not hot like they'd boil water, but pretty warm.

Think new fluid/rotors/pads would solve this, or maybe a bit of manipulation of the calipers themselves to get them moving right again? Or should I be looking at getting caliper rebuild kits?

[Gregory Casimir]

not to thread jack but I'm having the same issue.

[josh18_2k]

pistons are sticking. rebuild or just buy some rebuilt ones (~80 each at napa)

[TitaniumTT]

Rears are still expensive, If anyone can find them for less that $140, I'd be interested.

Josh is right on the money though, they're sticking. If after a hundred miles or so and a few heat cycles of they don't loosen, replace them

[Pete_89T2]

[QUOTE=TitaniumTT;120028]Rears are still expensive, If anyone can find them for less that $140, I'd be interested.

Josh is right on the money though, they're sticking. If after a hundred miles or so and a few heat cycles of they don't loosen, replace them[/QUOTE

$140 each or for a pair? FWIW, when I rebuilt my brakes this past winter, I picked up a set of semi-loaded rear calipers (has everything except pads, new shims & springs) for about $92 each from Brakewarehouse.com. Here's a link:

[URL="http://catalog.brakewarehouse.com/ShopByVehicle.epc?q=1989-MAZDA-Rx--7-R--1308cc--1.3l--F/i--Turbo--Vin--13begi-Brake/wheel--Bearing&yearid=1989%40%401989&makeid=51%40%40MAZDA %40%40&modelid=10348%40%40RX%2D7&engineid=7972%40% 40R2%2D1308cc+1%2E3L+F%2FI+TURBO+Vin+13BEGI%40%407 972&subcatid=64@@Rear+Caliper%2C+Wheel+Cyl%2C+Hose s&mode=PA"]

Pete

[Ender]

You could try tapping all the pads around with a hammer and a punch, the pads might just be stubborn rather than the calipers. It's a cheap attempt at least. I did this recently to keep the pads from sticking away from the rotors.

[soldave]

Thanks for the thoughts. Am gonna take a look at the calipers when I replace pads/rotors/fluid so hopefully I can play with them & get them moving again.

[josh18_2k]

just go to napa. srsly. i paid ~80/each for the front 4 pistons. rears were less (dont remember how much)

that price is after core exchange btw. it was way more with no core. thats why i always buy local- its a bitch shipping your bad calipers, and hoping they actually refund you.

[soldave]

No chance of a core exchange system here in Okinawa, Japan. Hopefully a little playing around with the front calipers and a seal rebuild will sort things. If not I'll have to get a new (used) set of working calipers.

[Pete_89T2]

Originally Posted by soldave

No chance of a core exchange system here in Okinawa, Japan. Hopefully a little playing around with the front calipers and a seal rebuild will sort things. If not I'll have to get a new (used) set of working calipers.

Forgot to add - the core charge at Brakewarehouse.com for the rear calipers was very low - only like $10 each. So I didn't bother to ship them back - shipping the 2 cores back would have cost me almost as much as I would have been refunded for the them. No idea if Brakewarehouse.com ships to Okinawa though.

[TitaniumTT]

I paid something like $60 for my fronts from my local supplier, but the rears were more than twice that for whatever reason. I refuse to buy parts from Napa, especially calipers. Had an OE caliper last for 140k miles before it started sticking. Napa's replacement lasted 2 months before it started sticking. They covered it under warranty which is fine, but the replacement only lasted a few months as well before it started leaking.

Same thing with thier lifetime rads - had an OE last me 170k and their replacement lasted 10k. No more Napa for me.

[Gregory Casimir]

I just called a found out that napa charges $35 to get refurbished turbo brake calipers (it's the same price for the fronts and rears). But this is after you trade in your old core like stated earlier.

[TitaniumTT]

So here's something rather strange - I thought I had a sticking caliper in the front. Exhibited all the normal signs so I bought a replacement. Put that on, same fucking problem. I thought, that's odd, buuuuuuuuut I've bought defective brake rotors in the past so off it comes.
When I went to take the caliper off I got lucky and noticed that the caliper, the caliper was touching the rotor. That's what was sticking. After driving a bit it did loosen up but that's becuase the rotor chewed into the aluminum caliper and freed itself. I removed the shim and the thing works perfectly.
Turn's out that the ABS rims that I got in trade from a forum member were bent. He shall remain nameless because I'm pretty certain he either didn't know or they got damaged in shipping.
Just one of those things. Those odd motherfucking things that could only happen to my prissy little bitch

[soldave]

Took my rears apart yesterday and found the boot on both left and right pistons had cracked, with the piston being tight on there. Managed to free them though and with plenty of cleaning the pistons came out ok. Some discolouring but no pitting that you could feel or see. Rebuilt them with new seals etc and they seem to be working like a charm Also got front rebuild kits but ran out of time yesterday so will do that another time.

[Ender]

Awesome!