warped rotors and stuck caliper

i-wagon

i-wagon

Well-known member
So for the last few weeks my foresterhas had a hell of a shimmy in the steering wheel at times, sometimes it'd go away after a long gradual turn, sometimes no. The woman got scared driving it and had her ad take it to vip and they said both front rotors are warped and the front right caliper was stuck ( this I don't doubt, the wheel was so hot they couldn't touch it or turn the wheel by hand) could it be that simple or could something else be causing my shimmy? Already checked ball joints and tie rod ends, should I rebalance the wheels too?

 
Well if the rotors are warped, when you hit the brakes the steering wheel may shack back and forth. That is very common, it just recently happened on my car, IT SUCKS! As far a shimmy, are we talking about just driving down the road and the car is shaking?

 
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foz has sliding calipers. if the guide pins are frozen, the brakes will drag on one side. clearest evidence of this is uneven wear on brake pads, one side will wear mucho faster than the other.

sounds like your foz needs some brake love! either unstick guide pins and replace rotors, or just do the whole brake system -- rebuilt calipers, new rotors, fresh pads.

good news is that rebuilt calipers are not that expensive. get the "loaded" ones, they already have fresh pads and fluid in the caliper bodies...makes bleeding much easier.

 
We have new rotors, I had the old ones turned nast spring, new pads last spring and new caliper ordered. I had greased the slide pins when I had it all apart last spring. We'll throw some parts at it tonight and see what happens

 
I-wagon said:
We have new rotors, I had the old ones turned nast spring, new pads last spring and new caliper ordered. I had greased the slide pins when I had it all apart last spring. We'll throw some parts at it tonight and see what happens
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the "new pads last spring" line throws up a red flag..have found that often times aftermarket subie pads fit into calipers a bit tight, esp if the caliper slots are rusted and the anti-rattle clips are smutzed up a bit (typical). the slightly oversize tabs on the new pads like to jam up in caliper, leading to exactly the symptoms you mentioned.

just a couple weeks ago, I had to replace pads on 1 side rear of my RS (old pads rusted/worn/bound up)and had to file the tabs of replacement pads a bit to make em fit properly.

 
I did the replacement pads on the bench grinder. I thought I'd gotten out easy when I loosened up a stuck slider bolt and yelled "woohoo" cuz I didn't need the $65 reman caliper, went to use a clamp to push the pistons back in and one was siezed up tighter than fort knox... then went to oper the box the new one was in ( special order) and it was a rear. Fuuuuuu....... call parts store to yell at people and find they have a front in stock. Thank god. I just put it all back together in the drizzle and test drove, shudder in wheel gone, almost stood on her nose when I put the binders on, so I'd say mission accomplished

 
I-wagon said:
I did the replacement pads on the bench grinder. I thought I'd gotten out easy when I loosened up a stuck slider bolt and yelled "woohoo" cuz I didn't need the $65 reman caliper, went to use a clamp to push the pistons back in and one was siezed up tighter than fort knox... then went to oper the box the new one was in ( special order) and it was a rear. Fuuuuuu....... call parts store to yell at people and find they have a front in stock. Thank god. I just put it all back together in the drizzle and test drove, shudder in wheel gone, almost stood on her nose when I put the binders on, so I'd say mission accomplished
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Yeah. I am scared to death of screwing up brakes, especially on my fiance's daily driver, but I took it out for a good flogging and double checked everything after, good to go. Now I just need anew drivers side rotor since my fatherinlaw only bought just enough to fix it. But on the bright side I saved myself 150 in labor

 
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