Seized up front brake caliper

[borz]

hello
Two weeks ago ofter a B service I was toled the front brake caliper needs to be changed then I had to wait 2 weeks for the part to arrive from Germany ,the car was booked for Friday morning and was told it will take up to 2 hours ,to my surprise I got a phone call ofter 6 hours and was told that the caliper is ceased up and they are unable to remove it fearing they might brake other parts and said to me that they need my car to stay there during the week end and they will tackle it again on Monday!has this ever happened to anybody else before and do you think they have broken other parts and not telling me tha is why they need the extra day to replace them ? what could go wrong when they are trying to remove the ceased up caliper? my is c class w203 state 2007 (57) plate and only don 5000 miles, appreciate your comments thank you

 

[BlackC55]

Is it the caliper piston that is seized?

 

[grober]

Were they going to rebuild the existing caliper with new piston/s+seals +pins or replace it with an entirely new/reconditioned one? If the former they are maybe leaving the old one to sit in some release agent over the weekend hoping to free it. If the latter I can only assume the caliper mounting bolts are seized and they are trying something similar to release them. Sometimes time is your best ally when freeing up seized components. OR maybe someone forgot/failed to order the right parts??

 

[6pot]

They never rebuild them its not worth the labour rate to do so.....id say they have ordered the wrong side/part.

 

[borz]

Hello again
They are going to change it for a new ones ,I think Grover is right that they probably sprayed some stuff to allow it to loosen over the week end .

 

[Smiley]

A mechanic can not remove a brake caliper from a 3 yr old car in 6 hours?
it does not sound plausible to me. HAve you asked how much they are going to charge you?

What symptoms did you have before you went ahead with the work? I would be suspicious of their diagnosis or ability to do anything at this point - is it a main dealer?

 

[borz]

Hi
Yes it is the main dealer and they are changing it under the waranties and I did not notice anything before it was after the B service which they said the calliper has to be changed.

 

[johnsco]

It all sounds a bit implausible to me.
It's difficult to believe that a three-year old, low-mileage car would have a siezed caliper piston.

A 13-year old car, maybe.
A 23 year-year old car, quite likely.

Similarly, it is hard to believe that the mounting bolts would be siezed on such a car.

I've spent all my life working on old cars and I've never yet failed to remove caliper mounting bolts.
This weekend, I've just done the job on my E300TD (1997 with 140,000 miles)
Piston quite free.
Mounting bolts stiff, but came out OK.

I just wonder if they've fouled-up on something else and would prefer not to say.

 

[borz]

Hi people
I just got the car back and the explanation was that it was the brake fluid pipe that was ceased up and they had to wait for it to loosen up before they could change the caliper and the track rod end as ell which bring with it a hole lot of other questions to mind.

 

[Ian B Walker]

Their explanation does not make sense. You don't have to remove the flexi brake hose so renew a caliper. I go along with the theory that they ordered the wrong part.

 

[corned]

Either that or the warranty is about to run out and they are putting in whatever bills they can sharpish before the gravy train leaves the platform.

 

[borz]

I never thought about it that way and about the wrong part I had to wait 8 days for the caliper to arrive from Germany that is why I don't think it is the wrong part theory , other wise I would have had to wait for 8 more days for another part to arrive!

 

[stwat]

8 Days for a part to arrive from Germany?? I have ordered some pretty obscure things for my 190's over the years and they have always arrived form Germany in 3 days at the most!

I bet the service manager was taking the car on his holiday. Have you checked your milelage

 

[6pot]

8 Days for a part to arrive from Germany?? I have ordered some pretty obscure things for my 190's over the years and they have always arrived form Germany in 3 days at the most!

I bet the service manager was taking the car on his holiday. Have you checked your milelage

There is no hard and fast rule for delivery from Germany. It used to be around 3 days, but recently the way parts are sent from Germany to the UK Has changed. It could be be 5 days or longer but usually most are quicker than this. Larger or hazardous parts can take longer as they come by:bannana: boat.

 

[borz]

I know it surprised me too but the main thing is that they did a good job with the service and that what matters but about mileage I was wondering about that my self but unfortunately I did not checked the mileage before.

 

[kth286]

Their explanation does not make sense. You don't have to remove the flexi brake hose so renew a caliper. I go along with the theory that they ordered the wrong part.

It has to be undone.

 

[moosehead]

Out of interest were these Sport Pack brakes i.e. aluminium caliper with MB lettering on the side?

I've just had new disks and pads all round on my 5 year W203 Sport Pack at 80K miles and the front calipers / disks were badly corroded and a nightmare to get off. I was toying with doing it myself but chickened out and let my MB trained indie do it. I'm glad I did when I watched him try and get them off. I think it's probably down to the fact that you have the two differenet types of metals. An indie on the other forum also mentioned that he's seeing an increasing number of Sport Pack calipers with seized pistons.

 

[borz]

yes it is sport pack caliper ,i was wondering that myself i mean with only 5800 on the clock i thought it odd for the caliper to ceased I think it must be more common and i am wondering if it is going to happen to the other calipers too

 

[moosehead]

It's just the fronts that are aluminium. It will be interesting to hear from any of the indies if they are experiencing difficulties with this type of caliper. Even the brake pad retaining pins were a nightmare to knock out on mine.

Brembo seem to paint their (I assume aluminium) calipers i.e. those fitted to Porshes and other high performance cars so I wonder if this eliminatres the problem that we have we our Sport Pack brakes?