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Bad Caliper?


92EuroScott

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So ever since I bought my Lumina, the brakes have been really soft. Meaning if I slammed on them to try to avoid an accident, there is no way I could stop in time. We(my dad and I) checked them, the front pads are fine. The back right, the outer pad is worn really bad compared to the rest, and also my parking brake doesn't work, even though the cable tightens. My dad is thinking this is cause of the rear calipers being bad? Not saying I don't believe him, and I plan on doing new rear calipers and pads tomorrow, just want to hear what you all think as well.

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Sounds to me like a dead brake booster.

 

Check this link:

 

http://www.w-body.com/content.php/183-Hard-brake-pedal-no-stopping-power

 

I forgot to add that the rear brakes on our (I say 'our' even though I no longer own one :lol:) cars (especially early W's) don't really do much. Your rears were probably fuxored even before you had the problem with the crappy pedal feel.

 

Have you tried bleeding them?

Edited by tornado_735
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No I haven't tried bleeding them, and I checked the booster and don't believe thats the problem either. I've heard many things about the calipers on the Luminas going bad, though.

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No I haven't tried bleeding them, and I checked the booster and don't believe thats the problem either. I've heard many things about the calipers on the Luminas going bad, though.

 

It's not just the Lumina, it's nearly all pre-1994 W's that usually suffer some sort of malady with the rear brakes. They are downright crappy. This, however, would not be a major cause for the problem you're describing. While it'll be good to change out your bad rear brakes, it's likely not going to improve the problems you're having now. Your problem could also be caused by the brake hoses; they get old and weak, and balloon under braking. That causes shitty pedal feel, and crappy stopping power.

 

My advice: Change the rear brakes, bleed them good at all 4 corners, and check your brake hoses. If the brake hoses look old and crappy, change them out and bleed the system again.

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C'mon, guys. The fact that he has uneven pad wear practically GUARANTEES that the calipers and/or caliper mounts are somehow defective.

 

If the rear calipers are defective; AND since the emergency brake doesn't work, practically GUARANTEES that the calipers are not self-adjusting like they should.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I won't say that there aren't OTHER problems as well. There's any number of things that can go wrong with a brake system. It just seems logical to address the KNOWN problems FIRST, and if that doesn't restore proper braking, start looking for hidden problems AFTER the obvious stuff has been taken care of.

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94 upgrade or DIAF. the spindle is the same, and everything bolts up, excluding the parking brake cable

 

requirements:

rotors

brackets

calipers

bolts between the bracket and spindle

bolt between each caliper and bracket.

pads

ALSO the 15 inch spare tire will not fit, you must upgrade to the 16 inch spare tire

 

Having done this several times... I have gotten nearly all my hardware used. Most j/y cars that have these parts will have good enough parts, and sometimes you get lucky and find recent brakejobs on a couple of cars. see your local pick a pull.

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Now, I won't say that there aren't OTHER problems as well. There's any number of things that can go wrong with a brake system. It just seems logical to address the KNOWN problems FIRST, and if that doesn't restore proper braking, start looking for hidden problems AFTER the obvious stuff has been taken care of.

 

See:

My advice: Change the rear brakes, bleed them good at all 4 corners, and check your brake hoses. If the brake hoses look old and crappy, change them out and bleed the system again.

 

:thumbsup:

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Well, another update. This time unwanted. One of the new calipers locked up on my way home. Wooo! My dad works at pepboys where we bought them, and they haven't sent my old ones back yet. So for now we are gonna put the old on back on, until another new one gets in stock. They had a defect warranty with them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The caliper could indeed be stuck, I would take off the caliper and compress it to see if it goes in, maybe it just needed to get re-seated if its not stuck.

 

But regardless, Calipers are super cheap if you take yours in as a core. My bird's cost $11 a caliper.

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I acknowlege the huge number of folks complaining about first-gen rear calipers. I've been hearing about the problems with them...since they were new (or nearly new.) So I'm not denying that folks have problems with 'em...

 

 

 

 

...but I've got a pair of Luminas, '92 and '93. Had the '92 since November of '92 (about 120,000 miles now); but I've only put about 40,000 of the 150,000 total miles on the '93. Neither has EVER had a problem with the rear brakes except for the brake hoses getting old, and the pads wearing out after a reasonable service life. Pistons never seized, sliders never seized...I replaced the rear calipers on the '92 in desperation; didn't fix a thing. (Needed a new brake booster instead)

 

MY experience with the first-gen rear calipers is that they work just fine, every time, and for years and years. YMMV.

 

The boosters, on the other hand, failed on both my vehicles. As far as I'm concerned, the booster is a much bigger problem than the rear calipers, and is ENTIRELY to blame for the "poor brakes--no stopping power" complaints that the first-gens have.

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FTR i swapped 94+ brakes on the white Lumina and i had a caliper seize on the way back from dayton in september. I have seen the 94+ brakes seize just as much as the older style. When my euro rear calipers seized, i replaced them with ac delcos with a warranties, so whenever they decide to go, ill get them free replaced.

 

I do however think my 92 euro is having this booster problem.

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