So I noticed that my new compound cobalt gts pads combined with my autozone rotors recently started making noise on the front left side.
I also noticed my brake light came on bc the fluid level got low. This made me think I had worn down pads and rotors.

I haven't noticed anything weird with the braking or driving or anything.

I inspected and saw extreme rotor wear, so I decided to replace pads and rotors.

When I pulled them off, I noticed that the front left pads were down to the backing plates and the rotor was severely grooved way beyond the service limit.

The right front pads have plenty left in them... And the rotor wear on that side is pretty decent for these pads.

I had a little bit of a hard time pushing the piston back in on the front left.

So, do I have a bad caliper?
Or did I have a bad compound of pad on that side?

And if I do have a bad caliper, should I rebuild it or replace it with a refurbished one from autozone?

 

in my expierience, if you can use a pair of vise grips to compress the caliper piston back, then the caliper is okay. sometimes they dont compress easily but i wouldnt replace the caliper unless the piston is seized completely and wont go back in with the vise grips.

are your sliders freed up? usually thats the culprit with this sort of problem.

 

I'm lazy so I just buy rebuilt calipers.

Check your slider pins though, you might need to lube them if the caliper is sticking, I'd try that first with some crap pads in case the caliper is actually the problem.

 

Ya I put on some old plenty of life left oem pads and previous rotors.

I'll check again in a week to see whats what.

Anybody got a link online to servicing itr calipers, or is it in the helms?

 

http://www.team-integra.net/forum/di...PagePosition=1

 

One thing to note, with brakes...

When pushing the piston back always have the bleeder open that way the fluid in the caliper gets dumped out and replaced with fresher fluid. The heat from the brakes can deteriorate the fluid that was in the caliper.

But I'm with ROR on this, I say as cheap as replacements are just replace it.

 

A caliper kit from my work would be $3 lol where a complete rebuilt caliper would be $48 after core.

 

It very well may have more to do with the pad than the caliper. These new GTS pads are not rotor friendly on a street driven car. What you described about your rotor wear seems to indicate the same. I really wish we could have the old Cobalt GTS pad back.

 

I am with ROR, last fall I replaced with reman'd units from Acura. Next time I'll go to O'Reillys or something.

 

The new GTS do suck quite horribly, but that doesn't explain the extremely uneven wear...

The new GTS pads = why I will never buy a pad from that company again.

 

My guess is that your caliper has a build-up of corrosion inside which keeps the piston from moving properly.

IMHO--- The best thing you can do is re-build your calipers and use what is called brake grease (Loctite) on the pistons as well as a thin coating on the inside of the caliper bodies.

Use fine wet/dry sand paper and/or a 3M abrasive pad to remove all corrosion. Clean thoroughly and coat the internals and sliding shafts with the Brake Grease. Everything will slide smoothly and the grease will prevent future corrosion.

Many mechanics don't know about Brake Grease and I'm not sure if replacement calipers are properly coated.

John