ZForce1

I have an unusual brake problem I have not encountered before. A '99 Z28, I've had the car since new and have changed the brakes myself every time. Noone else has ever changed the brakes in the 15 yrs I've had this car. I just bought duralast gold brake pads from autozone and new rotors-higher carbon ones, not to warp as easy. This is a daily driver, no track use, so not worth big money for brembo's etc. On the right fwd side, the caliper with new pads and caliper will simply not go on over the rotor. The caliper hits the rotor on the lwr inbd side before the pads come in contact with the rotor on the bottom. The caliper/pads slide over the rotor on top, but hit the caliper on the bottom. It's like the outbd pad is too thick keeping the caliper from sliding over. Yes the pistons are pushed in all the way. I even tried sliding the caliper on with the outbd pad on and no brake pad on the inbd side, just to see if it would go. It would not. Everything goes together fine on the left side. I have swapped rotors, pads, everything left to right. Nothing works. I measured everything with digital calipers, everything is within a few thousandths of each other. Any ideas?

ZForce1

Well, I got it together by taking the caliper off the mounting bracket instead of the two big bolts that take the whole caliper/mounting bracket off together that you have to do to remove the rotors. BUT, when I got it back together, torqued everything, the wheel would not turn. When I was putting the wheel on, I could tell it would not sit flush against the hub as it normall would. I tightened the lug nuts anyway to see what would happen, and the wheel did not turn. Anyone ever had a bent caliper mount bracket? Stuck caliper piston seems unlikely since it appeard I was able to push them in far enough that the pad on the piston side would sit completely behind the caliper mount bracket.

SmokedOutZ28

iTrader: (35)

Did you have noticeable wear from the brakes on that side?

How did you verify the caliper was pushed all the way in? Sometimes it takes opening up the bleeder screw while pushing the pistons in to get them all the way in.

ZForce1

Here's the thing. I put a straight edge against the caliper while it was off to help visually see how far pushed in the pistons were, and the new brake pad sat behind the mount bracket AND - I even tried installing the caliper/mount bracket as an assembly with no brake pad on the piston side. The caliper still did not go on. And there is still the fact that when the wheel went back on (after I forced things together by taking the caliper off the mount bracket), it would not turn. Things were jammed up bad. The Haynes manual (and my owner's manual) says you cannot bleed the brakes yourself, so I've been staying away from breaking lines loose. Just a weird situation all around. This is why I hate working on cars. But, things break and have to be fixed.

ZForce1

The brake pads were worn pretty far down all the way around. There was no noticeable gouging or other uneven wear marks on the old rotors. There has been a loud grinding noise driving the car lately that I've been trying to figure out. Most noticeable between 30-40 mph. Open the window and I can hear the pulsation. Too difficult to discribe, it has been baffling as well, because I had the car up and things seemed to turn and operate normally. One wheel bearing was grinding, so I replaced that. This could be the culprit. Some of the front brake pads were worn more on one side of the pad than the other, but there was no pulsating upon breaking. Brakes seemed to work normally before, aside from being old and worn.

ZForce1

Looks like it was the caliper mounting bracket that was bent/warped in some way. I got a new one, and it went together just fine. I have no idea how it could have gotten bent like that. Glad I got it fixed, though.