This the first of several threads which may be of interest ...The car pulled left even after caliper cleaning and reassembly with new brake hoses. I tried to figure out which piston was not working or which might be sticking -via heat data. Live at 2000 ft with tight curves and switchbacks so descended one AM at moderate speed ,25-35 mph and moderate braking (ambient 50F). After two miles I jumped out and took temp readings . Results of disc temps: 215-225F all 'round. Then on straights to town ,50-55,coast drive brake , not stop , moderate. Results: 125-150F all round. Conclusion: Rats, nothing obvioius. Also I believe hard driving on that descent would easily push disc temps well into 300F. At 390F aluminum is not happy and changes state.


I have read 345 pp of this section and note great frustration with the reman rear calipers. I believe besides the diminishing quality of the recycled rear piston, the reman dudes do not (all?)perform softness testing on the al calipers. From Auto Zone the RR replacement appears soft as I could not torque down the emergency cable (steel) bracket due to thread softness. IMO the rear calipers are at jeopardy of over heat due to the poor cable retraction feature which can cause drag and overheat. The instrument used in the heat meas was a K thermocouple probe bead style. Your tool boxes should include one . Very accurate and cheap. Ask me. I have not solved the pull yet. Next teardown I will carefully measur bore dias, especially rears.

quote Originally posted by hobbywrench: This the first of several threads which may be of interest ...The car pulled left even after caliper cleaning and reassembly with new brake hoses. I tried to figure out which piston was not working or which might be sticking -via heat data. Live at 2000 ft with tight curves and switchbacks so descended one AM at moderate speed ,25-35 mph and moderate braking (ambient 50F). After two miles I jumped out and took temp readings . Results of disc temps: 215-225F all 'round. Then on straights to town ,50-55,coast drive brake , not stop , moderate. Results: 125-150F all round. Conclusion: Rats, nothing obvioius. Also I believe hard driving on that descent would easily push disc temps well into 300F. At 390F aluminum is not happy and changes state. I have read 345 pp of this section and note great frustration with the reman rear calipers. I believe besides the diminishing quality of the recycled rear piston, the reman dudes do not (all?)perform softness testing on the al calipers. From Auto Zone the RR replacement appears soft as I could not torque down the emergency cable (steel) bracket due to thread softness. IMO the rear calipers are at jeopardy of over heat due to the poor cable retraction feature which can cause drag and overheat. The instrument used in the heat meas was a K thermocouple probe bead style. Your tool boxes should include one . Very accurate and cheap. Ask me. I have not solved the pull yet. Next teardown I will carefully measur bore dias, especially rears.

Hey buddy, welcome to the forum!

One thing I've learned with a lot of these rebuilds from AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, etc... is that they're generally not rebuilt very well. Most of these calipers that they get in on core are REALLY beat up. I've found the best thing is to actually rebuild them yourself as you know what's going into them, and you can ensure that they operate the same... especially when you rebuild the ones that came on your car originally.

Yo TA, the rebuild parts kits never contain the rear piston so we're in a downward spiral, No?

[This message has been edited by hobbywrench (edited 02-02-2013).]

quote Originally posted by hobbywrench: Yo TA, the rebuild parts kits never contain the rear piston so we're in a downward spiral, No?

You could probably get a set of pistons or even whole calipers from a junkyard that has a Fiero in it, and then rebuild those. I know not necessarily the answer you're looking for, but that's what I've done.

Yeah, the pistons don't usually come with the kit. I found this out the hard way when I swapped out my OEM calipers with some crappy rebuilt set a while back.