Dust in Wheel

I noticed after replacing my rear rotors and pads that my Subaru wasn't rolling as well as it should on inclines in neutral. Then I looked at my wheels and noticed that my passenger side front wheel had more brake dust than the drivers side front.

Clearly an indicator of brake pad rubbing against the rotor. Either the piston on the caliper was seized or something was keeping the brake pads against the rotor.

So a day after a rear brake job, I was doing another brake job on the front. Last year I had replaced the drivers side caliper. The piston on that caliper was seized. And was by far worse than what I was experiencing on the other side. Wheel was really hot and spray water on it and you'll hear the hiss of steam.

Of course after I got the new rebuilt one for the passenger side front caliper, the car was rolling fine. It was almost 7pm and I had the wheel off and began disassembling the brakes. And Sam came over to help me out. Glad he's retired.

Pistons on the caliper were fine. This is the guide pin that goes into the banjo. The lower part of the brake assy. The caliper mounts on this and the pin slides easily and smoothly in and out of the banjo. But the lower guide pin was stuck. The lower one wasn't even rotating. The grease was all dried and it was seized. I got it out. With pliers. The grease wasn't grease any more it was bits of hard stuff. Dirt and stuff was getting into the boot and it wasn't moving. I remember that one guide pin was like that when replacing the brake pads last year.

This is the upper guide pin. It's working perfectly. Grease is still grease. However you can't just get a new guide pin. Had to get a whole new brake assembly.

Whatever you do, when scoping out for parts. Ask where they are made or rebuilt. Some of the cheap ones are rebuilt overseas and the quality of the boot is crap. You'll end up replacing it in 1 or 2 years. A cheap rebuilt caliper is $50.00. This one cost $120 but it was both the caliper and banjo, and semi-loaded. Meaning it's greased up and ready to mount.

Just after 9pm ET, I was done, and thank god Sam was around to help me. The new caliper where the brake line mounts, the thread had a slight ding and wasn't going in. But Sam helped me with that.

Car rolls nice again.

I look at this as education for the day I can own a Porsche (like Martin) and be able to do all the maintenance myself rather than going to a dealer or Porsche shop. Just because a car costs over $100G's only means you must have cash to burn just to maintain it.