Removing frozen front calipers

[NemesisEJ22t]

Hey everyone, i have had my car for over a year now and i have never needed to change the front brakes. Saturday i decided to put new pads on to try to get my car to stop again. To my surprise, i found that the driver side caliper is rusted onto the guide pin, and will not move at all. It is so bad that i can't even move it enough to fit the new brake pads in. I think this may be the cause of my braking issues, but in order to fix it i have to get the caliper off. I am thinking of just replacing the entire caliper, but i would like to see if i can free the old one up first. I am assuming that the passenger side one is frozen as well, i didn't get far enough to check that though. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how i would free up the guide pin? I have tried beating the thing with no positive results, i was thinking of removing one of the brake pads(the one that faces outward) starting the car and pressing the pedal as hard as i can to try to get the caliper to move that way. Any other suggestions?

[evolutionmovement]

Crowbar, impact wrench for the pin, PB blaster.

Steve

[Brat4by4]

used wrx caliper and bracket... replace. oh, and at least 16" wheels, too if not done already.

[WRXdan]

Did you try heat? Heat is your friend.

[vrg3]

The same thing happened to one of my front calipers. I took the caliper and bracket as an assembly off the car and into my living room. I then used a big prybar and all my weight to get the caliper to rotate on the guide pin. It took a lot of effort. I worked it back and forth until I could do it without having to stand on it. Then I got it apart, cleaned it thoroughly, and found no bad scoring. So I just got a caliper rebuild kit and rebuilt it.

But if you can swing it, an upgrade to WRX front brakes might really be the best way to go. Used WRX front brakes go very cheaply on NASIOC.

[NemesisEJ22t]

So far removing the caliper and prying it is probably what i am going to do, with a lot of heat and PB Blaster. I would really like to get the WRX brakes, but this is still my winter car and i need to be able to put the stock winter rims and all season tires back on when it starts to snow. Does anyone know of a good place to get a rebuild kit?

[ultrasonic]

So far removing the caliper and prying it is probably what i am going to do, with a lot of heat and PB Blaster. I would really like to get the WRX brakes, but this is still my winter car and i need to be able to put the stock winter rims and all season tires back on when it starts to snow. Does anyone know of a good place to get a rebuild kit?

Do the smaller 2.5RS brakes fit under Sport Sedan 15" wheels? If so, that might be a good option. The caliper is the same a WRX, but with a smaller rotor and an appropriate bracket. I had considered doing this myself but I sold the stock wheels. RS brake parts are even cheaper than WRX, but a little more difficult to locate.

[vrg3]

That's not a bad idea... yeah, stock 2.5RS front brakes are very similar to stock Legacy Turbo front brakes, so they should fit.

I know I once fit my 15" stock Legacy Turbo wheels on my 97 Legacy 2.5GT, and it looked like a tight fit but it worked. I'd guess the 2.5GT and the 2.5RS have the same front brakes.

[NemesisEJ22t]

Hmmm, maybe i'll see if i can find a set of used 2.5 RS or GT brakes. I'm sure there are plenty of pad options for those calipers as well.

[vrg3]

Yeah; at least some years of 2.5RS brakes used the same pads as the 2002 WRX.

[entirelyturbo]

I know I once fit my 15" stock Legacy Turbo wheels on my 97 Legacy 2.5GT, and it looked like a tight fit but it worked. I'd guess the 2.5GT and the 2.5RS have the same front brakes.

Uh-oh. I have already laid claim to 01 RS calipers after the owner upgrades to 4-pots. I wonder if those calipers will clear my XT6 wheels that I may put on sometime this year

Maybe sometime I'll get her to let me put one of those wheels on her car to check.

[ultrasonic]

... I wonder if those calipers will clear my XT6 wheels that I may put on sometime this year...

What XT6 wheels are you talking about? What size are they and do you have pictures?

[NemesisEJ22t]

Well, the brakes finally kicked the bucket. Now the driver side cannot move more than a mile without smoking. I am going to pick up some reman. calipers on Monday and see if new ones make the braking any better. I would love to try to fit the 2.5 RS brakes under the car, and i might do that later in the summer, but i only have one working car (now zero with the Subaru stuck in the garage too), and i deliver pizza for my job. My biggest priority is to get it to stop right now. I'll let you know how it goes.

[NemesisEJ22t]

WOW. I just got the new calipers and pads on the car. This is probably the best thing i have done to the car so far. The slider pins on both of the calipers were frozen, causing the pads to wear unevenly and giving me poor braking. I have no more complaints about the brakes, and if anyone thinks their brakes aren't very good, make sure you check them out, you may have a similar problem. I don't think this car even needs better brakes anymore, it stops just fine on the stock setup in good condition.

[BAC5.2]

I hope you replaced the rotors too. Uneven pad wear usually associates itself with uneven rotor wear.

My brake system was completely re-vamped, and it seems to be semi-adequate. Good, but not what I'd like. WRX front brakes soon and a porportioning valve from a BF are in my near future. Maybe I can balance this car out afterall.

[NemesisEJ22t]

I was thinking about the rotors, but they weren't warped at all, and seemed to be in pretty good shape. It probably would have been a good idea, if the pads start to wear oddly they're the next thing on the buy list. I'm still trying to get this car back into decent shape, i wish the previous owner would have taken care of it a little more, i think they just pulled it from the yard, fixed the doors, sprayed it, and called it a day. There's quite a bit of rust on everything, which caused this entire brake problem.