On my way to work today I thought I felt my brakes being applied slightly as I stop for red lights. Upon inspection, I feel heat radiating from the wheel well and the wheel is hot to the touch. In comparison, the drivers side wheel is just warm.

I changed all of my pads back in June and I had a problem getting this particular piston back into the caliper. At the time, it was fully extended as the pad was 98% gone; it took me forever to finally get it to retract into the caliper. I used a caliper tool that has the notches in it along with a ratchet and spun it clockwise.

I read quite a few threads about this issue. Some say that if I remove the caliper arm (exposing the piston) I can extend the piston by gently pulling the e-brake. With the piston exposed, cleaning any debris with brake fluid\scrubbing then giving it a good lube with caliper\copper grease will do the trick.

Or could it just be the slider pins?

Some posts say a rebuild or new caliper is in order.

I am going to take it apart saturday morning and pray it is a DIY fix. I've never disassembled a brake (besides swapping pads) or changed brake fluid so I am a bit nervous doing it on my daily driver.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

Grease the slider pins first with some high temp lithium grease.

 

Don't wory it's a piece of cake
But yeah i'd check the sliding pins first. Try an move them by hand to see if they sliding freely. If not i'd take em out clean them ya know, make sure they loook ok an grease em like negcamber said.
If it's not that I would look at the brake line and make sure there are no kinks in that that are slowing the flow of break fluid.
If nothing with that it's probably a problem with the piston.
Probably/ hopefully just the sliding pins

 

Took it apart today and here's what the piston looks like. The slider pins seem to be moving freely so I guess that can be ruled out. I tried to spin the piston in but it is very tight and will not budge; yes, the ebrake is off. Where should I go from here?

If replacement\rebuild is necessary, is it hard to remove the caliper and clean the piston and replace the seals with the rebuilt kit? I've never removed a caliper or bled brake fluid so I am kind of new to this. All I have done in the past is replace pads. Or.. is it safer to buy a rebuilt caliper from the stealership? Is that hard to install? Can I just pinch the fluid cable when I remove it and reattach it to the new caliper?

Looks like the seal isn't sealed so water probably got in there and did some damage.


Pad wear looks ok:

 

Well I think I am going to replace with a re-manufactured caliper. How difficult is it to replace a caliper? Can I just pinch the fluid hose while I'm swapping or do I need to do anything else?

My local dealer has them for $155 and hardtopguy has it for $132 shipped. I may have to go with the stealership due to my S being my daily driver. I can probably have it by tomorrow via the dealer. :\

 

It's not hard to replace. Looks like you mostly have it apart already. All you need to do is remove the brake line and parking brake cable. Do not pinch the brake line to avoid bleeding the system.

Also, when ordering the rebuilt caliper, there are a couple of crush washers you should order too. The brake line attaches to the caliper with a banjo bolt. There is a washer between the bolt and the hydraulic fitting and between the fitting and the caliper. It is a good idea to replace them instead of reusing them.

There should be a sticky in the FAQ on how to bleed they system. Don't bother with getting one of those one man systems unless it is the type that looks like a big insecticide spray bottle. You might post up in your local S2ki forum to see if there is anyone local with experience who would help...it is the holiday's so there may be someone off work who would help.

 

I ordered with my local dealer about an hour ago. Hardtopguy was about $25 better in price but I was nervous with ship-time being the holidays are here, especially being my s2k is my daily driver. I paid the extra $25 to have it 8am tomorrow morning.

As nice as that would be to have someone to help I think I can handle it if I can just get a few pointers. I have a helms manual but it doesn't mention much about the brake line besides removing it and reconnecting it. I guess they assume you know to bleed it?

Is bleeding definitely necessary for a swap like this? If yes, since I am only doing the one caliper, can I just bleed the caliper I am working with?

I've talked to two other members that have successfully pinched the line for this type of swap with no issues.

 

You will need to bleed the system. I have no idea how someone could have done this by pinching the brake line and not bleeding. Even if you pinch the brake line, there will still be air in the new caliper that will need to be cleared.

Pinching the brake line is a bad idea since it can lead to cracking. But it is tempting since it is pretty messy to disconnect the brake line. The fluid will pour out while you are connecting the line to the new caliper.

It is pretty much impossible to bleed brakes without help unless you have a one man bleeder tool. And they are all pretty much crap except for one like this:

http://www.ibmwr.org/ktech/pressure-.../bleeder.shtml

(note...this is for a BMW...the s2k cap may be different)

There are instructions how to bleed the brakes in the FAQ stickied in this forum.

 

did you drive the piston back into the caliper properly? ir might just be that

 

negcamber: My problem is I have to remove the old caliper tomorrow to bring to the dealership to do a core swap -- I really just need a temporary fluid-blocker for about 20 minutes. Suppose I do not pinch the line and I leave the line hanging up-right while I go to the dealer to swap cores.

Since I am only replacing one, can I just connect the hose to the new caliper, open the bleed screw until no more air bubbles come out?

Isn't gravity bleeding done with one person?

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.ph...ic=482338&st=0

street ruler: The piston is seized. it was very hard to turn back when I changed pads in June. I tried to turn it the other day but it is frozen solid and the seal is disturbed so I'm sure there is some rust around the piston.