ebrake/caliper getting stuck.

[SocialStealth]

one day, I noticed a large amount of smoke coming from my wheel well while driving.
It was easy to figure out the problem, the E brake was stuck forcing the pads to rub the rotor.

I fixed it by spraying PB blaster on the thing that connects the ebrake line to the caliper. that is the thing that was getting stuck.

it was working fine for a while, but I decided to check up on it, and there's a problem again.
no matter how much I tighten the alen key caliper adjustment, the brake does not close all the way.

I bought new calipers about 2 years ago.

so the thing that moves on the caliper when you pull the ebrake is getting stuck. any ideas on why it's happening and how to fix it?

 

[Tekk]

in the last two years, have you done any preventative to the calipers? greasing sliders etc?

 

[616Nickel]

I had something similar a couple of weeks ago: The piston would not move, no matter how much I turned the allen-socket parking brake adjuster gear. The gear wasn't stripped, and turned without effort.

I ended up replacing the caliper, and took pictures of the old one, which can be seen in this thread. The piston had a ring of rust built up where it exits the o-ring seal. When I flushed the brake fluid in that caliper's line, a bunch of crud and what looked like water came out.

In retrospect, I could probably have gotten away without replacing the caliper: disassemble, sand off the rust, clean thoroughly, reassemble, and flush the entire brake system until all the old fluid is out.

Also, what Tekk said: check the sliders on all four calipers, and grease as necessary. My other rear caliper had a torn boot on its slider, and had pretty much seized up. I replaced the boot with the one from the busted caliper and got it moving freely again. One of the fronts was also a bit sticky, so I did that one too.

 

[SocialStealth]

no, I haven't done any preventative maintenance...!
So I should grease the moving thing that's stuck?
I will try taking it apart and clearing out some of the rust then bleeding my brakes. thanks for the advice!

on a side note, how do I tell when a rotor should be replaced? the seized-shut-smoking-brakes experience has left the one rotor a bit under the metal thing that's around the rotor, so there's a little bit of a lip there while they other ones are all about flush with the outer metal thing around the rotor... does that make sense? heh sorry I'm not familiar with the terminology. the rotor disk still feels smooth all around and doesn't seem burnt.

 

[Hayduke]

So, rear stuck = E brake
front stuck=caliper/piston issues?

 

[Maxx Mazda]

Buy a caliper hone. They're like $12. Get a rebuild kit from Mazda and rebuild and lube both rears.

 

[pcb]

I'm new to the internet and it's my first post so bare with me. I too had the smoke in the wheel well problem and it turned out of be the parking brake cable itself that was seized. I could tell by looking at the position of the cable connection at the caliper and it didn't move when the brake p-brake was applied or released.

There is a coil spring wrapped around the connection point at the caliper but it didn't have enough spring tension to pull the seized cable back out of the sheath when the p-brake was released. I had great luck with poking the little extender tube from the can of liquid wrench (or PB Blaster) into the rubber boot at the end of the cable (which is easier to do with the cable disconnected from the caliper and pointing up inside the wheel well to allow the fluid to drain down into the cable inside the sheath).

Be careful when poking the little tube in the boot so as to not rip the boot and let all kinds of water and crap get in and make things worse. (I cut the end of the tube at an angle to make it pointy or poke it with a pin first.)

I looked into replacing the cable but didn't have much luck with rock auto,.. they only had the front cable piece from the lever to the splitter underneath the heat shield (they have them now)

WAGNER Part # BC141718 {#F141718}
Rear Left
CAD$45.05

WAGNER Part # BC141834 {#F141834}
Rear Right
CAD$52.01

(Some guys ordered the cables on-line but got the ones for a regular protege (drum brakes) which are more common.)

When I went to remove the heat shield the bolt was really tight then started to turn then just kept spinning. There's a weld nut on the other side that broke free and just started to spin. I also Jerry rigged an extra spring (from an old brake shoe mechanism) to the caliper and the pivoting cable connection point to add some extra tension to pull the cable back out of the sheath to back the pads off the rotor.

Work the liquid wrench into the cable and allow the self adjuster to operate properly. I've also had to grease my sliders every year,.. they get all sticky in no time.