Sticking calliper - or something worse?
Discussion
Met up with a friend last night and he said that there was something wrong with his car.. he's only been driving 8 months or so and is pretty new to cars generally, so I popped out and took the car for a drive.
It's a W reg Honda Civic that we bought when he passed his test. Seemed nice and clean, honest seller and so far whilst it's had a few things done it's been very reliable. Found the car felt REALLY down on power, more so as you got up to speed, vibration coming through the steering as you got up to speed and under heavy braking.. brakes seemed to need very little pedal pressure before they started to come on.. and then I stopped and got out to check round the car and found the front driver side wheel was very warm. By the time we got back (another mile or so) there was smoke coming from the same wheel and the horrendous smell of brakes. I told him I was certain it was a stuck calliper, and that the vibration was because the brake disc had warped with the heat. I told him not to drive home and instead call breakdown, and to expect a bill of around £150 for a garage to strip / lubricate the calliper and probably replace both sets of pads and discs.
A guy from a local garage turned up at about midnight and proceeded to take his car home. Prior to doing this however he jacked the car up and spent about 5-10 minutes poking around and came to the conclusion that it's the gearbox differential at fault, and that he should expect a minimum bill of £300 maybe more for a gearbox rebuild!?! I spoke to my friend on the phone this morning where he told me all this and I found it hard to believe.. I'm beginning to doubt myself (merely a car enthusiast who's done a few jobs on his own cars over the years) and he works for a garage - but it seems very unlikely?!
Any thoughts?
It's a W reg Honda Civic that we bought when he passed his test. Seemed nice and clean, honest seller and so far whilst it's had a few things done it's been very reliable. Found the car felt REALLY down on power, more so as you got up to speed, vibration coming through the steering as you got up to speed and under heavy braking.. brakes seemed to need very little pedal pressure before they started to come on.. and then I stopped and got out to check round the car and found the front driver side wheel was very warm. By the time we got back (another mile or so) there was smoke coming from the same wheel and the horrendous smell of brakes. I told him I was certain it was a stuck calliper, and that the vibration was because the brake disc had warped with the heat. I told him not to drive home and instead call breakdown, and to expect a bill of around £150 for a garage to strip / lubricate the calliper and probably replace both sets of pads and discs.
A guy from a local garage turned up at about midnight and proceeded to take his car home. Prior to doing this however he jacked the car up and spent about 5-10 minutes poking around and came to the conclusion that it's the gearbox differential at fault, and that he should expect a minimum bill of £300 maybe more for a gearbox rebuild!?! I spoke to my friend on the phone this morning where he told me all this and I found it hard to believe.. I'm beginning to doubt myself (merely a car enthusiast who's done a few jobs on his own cars over the years) and he works for a garage - but it seems very unlikely?!
Any thoughts?
A stuck caliper would get the disc virtually glowing hot and you would almost certainly smell hot brake pad (by the wheel) as well. Once cooled, a stuck caliper will usually release the disc enough to allow a very cautious limp home.
Also, if a disc has been severely overheated it will usually show some surface "blueing".
I know nothing about front diff' problems.
Also, if a disc has been severely overheated it will usually show some surface "blueing".
I know nothing about front diff' problems.
Chicane-UK said:
expect a bill of around £150 for a garage to strip / lubricate the calliper and probably replace both sets of pads and discs.
You must know a very cheap garage!!Also a stuck caliper will almost certainly need a new piston at best and fairly likely a whole new caliper. And if one side of the car has gone the other may well be on the way...
Best of luck to your mate with this one. Hope he gets a sensible fix.
Ozzie Osmond said:
You must know a very cheap garage!!
Also a stuck caliper will almost certainly need a new piston at best and fairly likely a whole new caliper. And if one side of the car has gone the other may well be on the way...
I figured being a small engined Civic discs and pads would be cheap and a few hours labour... Also a stuck caliper will almost certainly need a new piston at best and fairly likely a whole new caliper. And if one side of the car has gone the other may well be on the way...
Chicane-UK said:
I figured being a small engined Civic discs and pads would be cheap and a few hours labour...
Yes discs and pads ill be cheap but as he says the caliper will be needing sorting too. No garage will fart around cleaning it properly either. And chances are it will stick again anyway. Just get a refurbed unit.doing it your selves you should be able to change discs pads and caliper for around the 150. Bu if you want to be sure its the caliper then whip it off and see if the hub spjns freely.Mechanic imho is talking s
te.Bizarre diagnosis from the symptoms.
Those calipers are notorious for sticking later in life when the seals split. The slider pins seize as does the piston which will probably become very pitted.
Proper refurbed part or new, don't piss about with getting the garage to clean it up, it will just happen again.
Those calipers are notorious for sticking later in life when the seals split. The slider pins seize as does the piston which will probably become very pitted.
Proper refurbed part or new, don't piss about with getting the garage to clean it up, it will just happen again.
I would just go for a second hand caliper from a scrappy for a car like that.He could probably fit it himself if he is half handy with a spanner and it would almost surely be cheaper than labour to strip the caliper.Also have a good look at the state of the pads and discs.Cant see how it could be a gearbox or diff issue.
Result! You have to wonder about some so-called mechanics.
If it's anything like the callipers fitted to the Nissan Almera, which stick with monotonous regularity, the problem generally seems to be related to the pad rather than the calliper itself. The back of the pad corrodes and expands, and sticks in the calliper. So it tends to rub, it all gets hot and over time can damage the calliper. After replacing a couple of callipers, we found that, when the squealing starts, you can remove the pad and touch it up with a file or grinding wheel so that it's a sliding fit again, which sorts it for another "n" thousand miles. There's very little clearance in there so it doesn't take much for it to stick, and you don't have to remove much to free it up. Garages will tend to replace the calliper immediately, even though there's nowt wrong with them.
If it's anything like the callipers fitted to the Nissan Almera, which stick with monotonous regularity, the problem generally seems to be related to the pad rather than the calliper itself. The back of the pad corrodes and expands, and sticks in the calliper. So it tends to rub, it all gets hot and over time can damage the calliper. After replacing a couple of callipers, we found that, when the squealing starts, you can remove the pad and touch it up with a file or grinding wheel so that it's a sliding fit again, which sorts it for another "n" thousand miles. There's very little clearance in there so it doesn't take much for it to stick, and you don't have to remove much to free it up. Garages will tend to replace the calliper immediately, even though there's nowt wrong with them.
Interesting.
SWMBO's 53 plate Mazda had a sticking caliper recently, and the mechanic put it down to Japanese parts having finer tolerances. At the time I took it with a pinch of salt, but there are a lot of Jap cars being mentioned here...
(Obviously, I'll ignore a Skoda I had that seized a caliper
)
SWMBO's 53 plate Mazda had a sticking caliper recently, and the mechanic put it down to Japanese parts having finer tolerances. At the time I took it with a pinch of salt, but there are a lot of Jap cars being mentioned here...
(Obviously, I'll ignore a Skoda I had that seized a caliper
)Bill said:
Interesting.
SWMBO's 53 plate Mazda had a sticking caliper recently, and the mechanic put it down to Japanese parts having finer tolerances. At the time I took it with a pinch of salt, but there are a lot of Jap cars being mentioned here...
(Obviously, I'll ignore a Skoda I had that seized a caliper)
I had a E46 3 series coupe which suffered from 2 siezed calipers. SWMBO's 53 plate Mazda had a sticking caliper recently, and the mechanic put it down to Japanese parts having finer tolerances. At the time I took it with a pinch of salt, but there are a lot of Jap cars being mentioned here...
(Obviously, I'll ignore a Skoda I had that seized a caliper
)The OP's situation sounds like checking the caliper is a good place to start. I was lucky enough that i never warped my discs but I caught both very early. I claened a lubricated my pistons as a temp fix and would have refurbed all 4 calipers if I was still using the car.
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