eclecticsoundboy

alright. i wouldnt have posted on this but this is the seconds time this has happened to me and i need some closure. i bought my 2004 xA RS 2.0 at frontier toyota in valencia, ca in may of 05.

in september of 05 my breaks were making my pebbles vibrate and didnt slow down at all until after 5 seconds of breaking. i took my car into my local bakersfield dealership and they called me and said that the break pads were metal-to-metal with the rotors on both sides and that they needed to be replaced at my expence for, i think the figure they gave me was $400+.

being a little ____ed at this, i made a call to the service manager who went out and checked on my car for me personally. he called me back and he said they didnt test the calipers before calling me. that there was a defect and that they would replace them for free, as the warrenty was still valid, and have the car back to me by 7 that night.

so. eight months later, my car is doing it again. i had thought it would have just been my rought driving, but my mechanic friend jacked up my car and removed both pads. the one under my driver side was metal-to-metal and the one under my passenger side had much more than half it life left in it. he said to take it into the dealership, which i did. they said the driver side caliper was faulty and that they needed to replace it.

HOWEVER, not only didnt they have the parts in stock, and plan on making me wait till wednesday, but they also said they wont replace my rotors this time around. i asked why and they said because it wasnt effected. i went back to my friends, jacked up my car, and low and behold, the rotor was scraped all to hell with a nice grove on the backside from the breaks grinding at it.

so, i ask you, WTF?!? has anyone else ever had thins much trouble with their car within a year of purchase? mind you, i do drive everywhere between me and LA constantly, but this break issue cant be me, can it?

LeeD

The problems is your pistons and the o-ring seal between them and the caliper. The o-ring sits in such a fasion inside the caliper where when you push your breaks, and the piston come out, the oring will deflect out of it's normal shape. When you release the breaks, the oring helps to bring the piston back into the caliper and retract to it's original shape. You also should have dust boots between the piston and the caliper (the oring I was talking about is inside this boot, and can only be seen after you push the piston out).

I've had a piston stick on me before on my Z while at the race track. Wore through that pad within 1-2hrs of hard track driving. All the other pads looked pretty much new. Can happen if dirt gets stuck between the piston and caliper, or if the piston seazes inside the caliper. Was able to fix it myself by personally rebuilding the calipers. For a warrenty car though, you should have them replace the caliper all together. I'll bet money that,
1. They don't know what then hell could cause something like this to occur.
2. They don't believe you that this can happen.

eclecticsoundboy

This is the second time this has happened in a year. You think they'd get the message to make sure that their parts are good before putting it onto a vehicle.


When I brought my car in this time, the service rep looked at me like I told him a UFO story, saying he's never seen pads wear out like I said they did. So I took them out of the box my new ones came in and showed it to him. Then he believed me.


And to top it off, my MATIN REQU light just came on. grrr...

THansenite

wheee doant knead know steenkin gramerr

Scionpilot

Maintenace required light just means it is time for an oil change

eclecticsoundboy

and if i didnt have the oil changed 300 miles ago, i would have thought that too. but it was reset and it keeps comming back on.

LeeD

I think the root cause for all of this is because your car is yellow and not blue. Yellow as in being a lemon. ;) j/k

eclecticsoundboy

well, since posting this, my car has become totaled, so i no longer have this problem, as i no longer have this car.

Epitrochoid

[/quote]
well, since posting this, my car has become totaled, so i no longer have this problem, as i no longer have this car.[/quote]

Let me guess, an accident due to brake failure?

THansenite

Lol, good call

LeeD

ooo.. sorry to hear the news..

Look at the bright side, your car seemed to be giving more problems than the average new car. Look at it as an opportunity to get another, or something better w/less headaches. Good luck, and hope nobody got hurt.