I'm finishing up a complete overhaul on my brakes, however, my driver's side rear caliper has been a PIA. After releasing the brake pedal the caliper continues to grab onto the rotor. I'd roughly estimate that it takes nearly 20-25 lbs of torque to rotate the rotor by hand from the lugs...obviously something isn't right. I've replaced the caliper twice with reman units, (Autozone lifetime caliper) but still haven't had any luck. The sliding pins are greased and the caliper is freely mobile, and I also installed new rotors and pads on the rear. Btw, the rotor spins freely with the caliper unattached, so that eliminates the possibility of a bad wheel bearing.

A friend of mine mentioned the culprit may be a "collapsed" brake line. Not sure of you have had this happen before or if it's a common failure. Just looking for insight before I jump into buying a set of ss lines. I'm trying to stay within a budget.

Btw,
-Car has been sittin for quite some time
-New MC, bench bled before the install
-Brakes have been properly bled (more than enough), using Valvoline Synthetic
-The orginal (old) caliper did this before all of the above changes to the brake system

TIA

 

the rears hate life in general,they are prone to fail. replace w/ a reman

 

have u tried unhooking the parking brake cable and see if you still have this issue?

sometimes the parking brake cables start to seize up after time and can possilby cause seomthing like you are describing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DrVtec99 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the rears hate life in general,they are prone to fail. replace w/ a reman</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've replaced that same caliper twice with remanufactured calipers from Autozone.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Eddiebx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">have u tried unhooking the parking brake cable and see if you still have this issue?

sometimes the parking brake cables start to seize up after time and can possilby cause seomthing like you are describing.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The parking brake cable was disconnected while all the above symptoms occured.

 

I have had bad ones out of the box from Autozone before. What thickness rotor are you using, stock?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DrVtec99 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have had bad ones out of the box from Autozone before. What thickness rotor are you using, stock?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Bad Calipers or rotors from Autozone?

I'm using oem style rotors (blanks) from Autozone as well, I already measured the rotor thickness with a dial caliper and it was the same as the passenger side, which isn't giving me any problems.

 

I have never seen one malfunction but maybe the proportioning valve. Not much left to check. good luck

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crx Jimmy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have never seen one malfunction but maybe the proportioning valve. Not much left to check. good luck</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks, I actually have a spare 4040 prop valve from another DA so I'll keep that in mind. The gameplan as of now is to replace the oem rubber "soft" line that connects to that caliper with a new stainless steel braided line along with the other side so it's in proportion with another. After disconnecting the rubber line I'll bleed the hard line routing to the caliper just to make sure any debris didn't find it's way in the hard line...hopefully that will resolve the issue.

I'll keep all of you posted, the car is awaiting a retune, but that's not happening until my brakes are in line. Thanks for the help thus far

Btw, I found a fair deal on some s/s lines here on h-tech if any of you are in the market...still waiting to here from the seller though... https://honda-tech.com/zero...39311

 

I've heard of what your talking about, the brake line causing it. The story goes that water or fluid gets between the outer layers of the brake line and forces the inside layer closed. Being essentially pinched, you can force fluid in but it wont return on its own. I would say try new brake lines considering you've tried everything above.

 

the line should show a small buldge where the line layers have failed if this is the case. also line cracking and chaffing is usually visable as well where moisture has built up in the layers along with being dis-colored.

 

tried bleeding the brakes? could be a clump in the lines

 

if the problem is a stuck caliper, it is most likely trash in the brake lines getting in and jamming the "O" ring against the piston.

if it is a collapsed hose, it is a hydraulics issue.

pull the wheels and push hard on the brakes for a minute or so to simulate the issue.

bleed the brakes like themikewoo said. if it goes away, it is hydraulic and you likely have a bad hose. if it is still stuck, either you got a bad caliper from autozone or there is rust scale in your lines that gunked up the new caliper.

did you flush the lines when changing the caliper?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tom91ita &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if the problem is a stuck caliper, it is most likely trash in the brake lines getting in and jamming the "O" ring against the piston.

if it is a collapsed hose, it is a hydraulics issue.

pull the wheels and push hard on the brakes for a minute or so to simulate the issue.

bleed the brakes like themikewoo said. if it goes away, it is hydraulic and you likely have a bad hose. if it is still stuck, either you got a bad caliper from autozone or there is rust scale in your lines that gunked up the new caliper.

did you flush the lines when changing the caliper?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Here's the rundown: I replaced the one of the front calipers and the MC and bled the brakes properly using Valvoline synthetic and pumped out all of the old fluid. Afterwards, my pedal felt great and tight.

Then I noticed the passenger side rear caliper was sticking after doing the above (it did this before in the past). So I replaced that caliper twice with reman units with no luck, it stills sticks. In addition, after I replaced the rear caliper and bled the lines countless times unfortunately now my pedal feel is crappy. So I'm even worse off now, rear pass. caliper still sticks and my pedal almost goes to the floor after bleeding all 4 corners.

Tom91ita: I did not flush the lines, when I bled the brakes I only pumped the fluid through the calipers' bleed plug, I did not disconnect the soft line from the caliper.

All of you have been very helpful so far, so thank you for the responses. I'm juggling 2 projects at this point and I plan to pick up on this once I receive the s/s lines (I ordered them last night). Hopefully a week's time or so.

Tom: I assume my best bet is to bleed the hard lines of any debris as I stated earlier, before I install the s/s lines, hopefully that will correct the problem in addition to the "spongy brake pedal".

 

Nisif I going to save you a lot of time and money !
The same problem happen to me, I change every component twice before I figure it out !
You need to adjust your brake booster, check in the honda manual how you adjust your booster with a 4mm space.
I spend over 30 hours of work before finding this out.
Good luck
Benny

 

wouldn't this cause an all around issue not just isolated to one caliper?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by realride &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nisif I going to save you a lot of time and money !
The same problem happen to me, I change every component twice before I figure it out !
You need to adjust your brake booster, check in the honda manual how you adjust your booster with a 4mm space.
I spend over 30 hours of work before finding this out.
Good luck
Benny</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for the input. I'm assuming your relating this to my lack of "brake pedal feel" rather then the sticky caliper problem. Too many brake issues for one thread... The brake booster could possibly be an issue, however the pedal feel deterioates over time which leads me to believe that air is somehow entering the lines, so I'll concentrate on that first. I'll keep that in mind though

Hopefully within a week I'll be finished fabbing up a new downpipe for my civic so I can jump back into the brakes on my teg. I'll keep all of you posted. The stainless lines on their way... Too many projects not enough time

 

Have you had any luck getting this sorted? I'm going through the same problem at the moment

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hybrid2007 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Have you had any luck getting this sorted? I'm going through the same problem at the moment</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not yet, I've been working 6 days per week and wrapping up some loose ends on my other car as well. A week's time and it'll be back in the garage, I'm already pushing past my expected deadline... I plan on doing a write-up with pics to benefit those that are experiencing the same issues. Keep your eyes on it, I'll keep this updated. Received my s/s lines in the mail about a week ago, so the parts are ready for install

 

after the seals seemed to be bad on my old MC, i replaced it, but now have very poor pedal feel, 'long' pedal, etc. AFAIK, the (unlabeled) autozone MC has the same bore as that of the bad one. however, when i went to replace my rotors, i noticed that the front passenger side inner pad (only a few months and 2 mild track days old) was shot; as though it was basically (lightly) engaged with the rotor most of the time i was driving. it wasn't noticeable when driving, but the passenger rotor and pads were notably more worn than the driver's side set.

do you think that my problem could be related to the booster adjustment, even though it's only on one side?

my Helm manual calls for a special adjustment too for the job, and seems to suggest that the MC and booster have to be off of the car to adjust. anyone have any experience with this?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slofu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">after the seals seemed to be bad on my old MC, i replaced it, but now have very poor pedal feel, 'long' pedal, etc. AFAIK, the (unlabeled) autozone MC has the same bore as that of the bad one. however, when i went to replace my rotors, i noticed that the front passenger side inner pad (only a few months and 2 mild track days old) was shot; as though it was basically (lightly) engaged with the rotor most of the time i was driving. it wasn't noticeable when driving, but the passenger rotor and pads were notably more worn than the driver's side set.

do you think that my problem could be related to the booster adjustment, even though it's only on one side?

my Helm manual calls for a special adjustment too for the job, and seems to suggest that the MC and booster have to be off of the car to adjust. anyone have any experience with this?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm hardly a brake expert or else I wouldn't have created this post, but here's some insight.

After you replaced the master cylinder with a new one, the brake feel deterioted? Did you bench bleed the m/c before you installed it? I would assume your first priority should be to detemine if there is still air in the lines which could possibly affect caliper's performance...possibly making it drag on the rotor. There's a good link somewhere that describes how to diagnose (perform a test) whether the m/c or the brake booster is the problem. I'll try to find it, hopefully that'll give you a good start what to focus on.

 

i bench bled the crap out of it, and performed every test in the Helm manual (several times). i bled all 4 corners, as well.