Seized caliper

Ok, so now I'm pissed. My passenger front caliper decided to seize on me the other day. I went to an autopart store, and ordered a caliper...stressing how it needed to be for a MAZDASPEED Protege...not a Mazda Protege. Well, of course it was the wrong one. So next I ordered a caliper from another place that made me seem confident because they were like, "yup, Mazdaspeed Protege/special order. The price also made it seem like it was right. Nope...wrong part again. Does anyone know the part #/where I can get one cheap?

just get the 2001 626 V6 Calipers. It's the same and cheap.

what exactly is wrong with it? my mechanic told me mine was seized and all we did was take the thing apart, clean it add some anti-seize and put it back together. didn't cost me a dime to fix

Not sure if this is the problem but.... I had my calipers off a while ago to get at the bottom strut tower bolts in the rear and when i went to put them back on for some reason they were completely closed. After like 30 minutes of trying to force it open again and actually bending a massive c-clamp trying to make it go, I discovered that it is not a traditional piston caliper. The piston itself actually has threats so it can adjust itself to any thickness your pads might be for good braking even if your pads are old.

Solution?? Open your caliper to get at the piston, take a pair of needlenose pliers, shove them in the two slots on the piston and screw it in.

Not sure if that is the problem but I'd try it.

The piston was torn and the pads on that caliper were worn to the metal (keeping in mind that the pads and rotors were replaced like 3 months ago. Plus when I had the vehicle on a lift, the wheel would not spin freely.

you're referring to the back calipers. the fronts are not threaded.

MSP2003.5_Nick said:

Not sure if this is the problem but.... I had my calipers off a while ago to get at the bottom strut tower bolts in the rear and when i went to put them back on for some reason they were completely closed. After like 30 minutes of trying to force it open again and actually bending a massive c-clamp trying to make it go, I discovered that it is not a traditional piston caliper. The piston itself actually has threats so it can adjust itself to any thickness your pads might be for good braking even if your pads are old.

Solution?? Open your caliper to get at the piston, take a pair of needlenose pliers, shove them in the two slots on the piston and screw it in.

Not sure if that is the problem but I'd try it.

Click to expand...

Oh really? I've never really had to take the front ones off other then changing the pads. I just assumed they were all the same deal. My bad!

But my orginal idea might work on them. I fixed a caliper on a 90 accord like that (orginal OEM caliper). It was seized to crap and I got the beefiest c-clamp they have at canadian tire and went to town on that piston. It was really hard but eventually the non-threaded piston types should go under that much force. Its not like it can break, its pretty much a hydraulic piston theres no mechanical parts that make it move its just brake pressure. And if it does break you're not any worse off then before when it didn't work lol.

Often times when you bring your car to a garage if its too much effort they will just tell you its broken and you need a new one (I used to work at one). 99% of the time if it is too rusty or seized or even if they don't like your face they might opt to break it off with a hammer and say you need a new one. I never did that but some might, hence why I work on my own car.

Lol sorry for rambling.............

I ended up keeping the bottum portion (bracket) and using the top (new) part of the caliper.