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Quoted From Hondafreak2003:
Recently I have noticed that the left rear brake pad on my ’02 Crv is much more worn than the right rear brake pad. I don’t know the first thing about brakes but I tried poking around a bit to see what I could come up with. All I found was that one of the slide pin dust boots is torn. Can this cause the premature brake pad wear? If so how should I proceed?
Thanks
I’m not that familiar with the Crv but are you talking about a dust boot for a slide pin or for a caliper piston? A torn dust boot for the caliper piston could be the cause for debris getting into the caliper and seize the piston, which could result in uneven wear. A bad flex brake line could also cause uneven wear if the caliper piston cannot retract due to a swollen flex line.
That can cause some uneven wear. What happens is the slide pin seizes inside of it’s bore in the caliper bracket, which will prevent the caliper from sliding correctly, which in turn will cause the brake pads to wear unevenly. There are a couple of things you can do about this. The cheap, but time consuming route is to take the caliper off the bracket and then take the bracket off the car and clamp it in a vice in such a way that you can easily get at the slide pin with a pair of vice grips. Take a torch and heat up the part of the bracket that the slide pin goes into while trying to twist the pin with a pair of vice grips. Also spray some penetrating oil on the pin to help free it up. Once you get the pin out, clean it up with a wire brush and also clean out the bore as best you can. Hopefully I don’t have to tell you to wait until everything cools off before you start cleaning things. Once you get it all cleaned off, get a new dust boot from a local parts store, put a thin coating of silicone paste on the pin and put it back in it’s bore.
The more expensive, but faster method is to buy a new bracket with new pins in it. You may have to buy the caliper to get the bracket, so be aware of the potential cost of doing it that way before you make your decision.
Also make sure you use the correct lubricant for the guide pins. I would also make sure while your at it that your caliper pistons will compress freely back into there bore’s.
Good luck and keep us posted!
Honda rear calipers are famous for hanging up anyway but to be honest even if you don’t replace the boot if you service them regularly with silicone paste they last a long time, the paste does a pretty good job of keeping out debris and contaminants. Here’s a video that I did on the topic that might help you, I know it’s a Subaru but the principals are the same and the calipers aren’t all that different if memory serves.
Took it in to NTB for a brake inspection. They did agree that the torn boot caused the uneven wear from the brake pads. Though they did show me that the calipers are very rusty and suggested that they be replaced. How often do calipers usually need to be replaced? Do you think this is necessary or will fixing the boot and replacing the pads be ok?
I’d replace the calipers and the bracket and use the paste. Expensive unless you go to ebay. I buy most of my parts on ebay. They are cheaper and last just as long as oe.
How difficult is it to do yourself? I’m no mechanic but I am competent when it comes to repairs. I’d like to do it myself but if it is difficult then I’d rather have a professional do it. Brakes are pretty important. Also, what would a good price for calipers be?
If you’ve never done it before, then I would suggest you bring it in to a shop. Like you said, brakes are important. You can mess up the repair and put yourself in a bigger whole. Leave it to a professional.
If the casing of the caliper is the only rusty part, I wouldn’t replace it. If there’s rust on the bore of the actual piston due to a missing dust boot, or in the bores of the slide pins, then yeh, I would. Otherwise, it sounds like you’re just being oversold. The caliper should be fine unless it’s leaking somewhere or the piston won’t compress easily, or it won’t slide freely on the pins once properly lubed.
that is kind of what i was thinking. I will take it to another place and have them also do a brake inspection. If they don’t say they need to be replaced then I wont. Also, is it necessary to replace/refinish the rotors when doing a brake job? These brakes really aren’t very old, one just wore way too early.
You would need to find out what the discard thickness is for the rotors to see if they can be machined.
If there are grooves in the rotor, or the surface looks uneven, then it’s a good idea to have the rotors machined or replaced. If it all looks good and even (check the back too) then you should be ok with not servicing the rotors.
Personally speaking whenever I replace brake pads on my own cars I always replace the rotors. I really don’t like working on my own cars, so the least amount of time I can spend turning a wrench on them, the better. It takes a lot less time to take a rotor out of a box, clean it off and put it on then it does to remove the old rotor, set up the lathe, cut it, clean it off and put it back on. Also, if you’re doing the work yourself rotors aren’t all that expensive unless you’re working on a sports car or a high end luxo-barge. I think when I replaced the pads and rotors on my Impreza all the way around it set me back something like $130 for two sets of pads and 4 brake rotors. Your mileage may vary.
Also, I’d recommend you do the work yourself. Brake work, while easy to make mistakes on, isn’t really all that hard. As far as replacing the caliper goes, if the piston retracts easily and smoothly, with no leaks i wouldn’t replace it. As long as it works, leave it alone. If you need a step-by-step on how to replace a caliper, I can write one of them up for you, just let me know.
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