Brake Caliper Piston

martian · January 29, 2010

Hi all, first post so be gentle with me! Nearly 2 years ago I experienced severe vibration on steering wheel, not caused on braking, just came on by itself. Went to local garage (having read horror stories about Lexus prices) who reckoned the brakes on o/s front were jamming on. They freed it up and had to replace disc/pad and all was well (£340 later).

Exactly the same problem has recurred. Question is do I just ask them to free it up again knowing it is likely to happen again down the line or pay to have the piston sent away for reconditioning? Is it worth reconditioning a 9 year old piston? How much to recon as opposed to getting a new one?

Any advice greatly appreciated, cheers.

ROYT · January 30, 2010

Have a look if there is anything on www.biggred.co.uk

osteo66 · January 30, 2010

Hi all, first post so be gentle with me! Nearly 2 years ago I experienced severe vibration on steering wheel, not caused on braking, just came on by itself. Went to local garage (having read horror stories about Lexus prices) who reckoned the brakes on o/s front were jamming on. They freed it up and had to replace disc/pad and all was well (£340 later).
Exactly the same problem has recurred. Question is do I just ask them to free it up again knowing it is likely to happen again down the line or pay to have the piston sent away for reconditioning? Is it worth reconditioning a 9 year old piston? How much to recon as opposed to getting a new one?

Any advice greatly appreciated, cheers.

Hi,

This is a common problem on GS's, if you have a search on here you'll see plenty of discussion! Normally it's the sliding pins that gum up and stick which is what happened to mine. I overhauled the pistons with a repair kit which to be honest was a pain, when it happened again I exchanged my caliper with Brakes Direct, cleaned and greased the pins and bolted it all back together; much cheaper and easy if you are ok with a spanner. Have a look at some of Tigerfishes posts/write ups on here that deal with exactly this for the Mk1 GS's. You don't need to pay a dealer!! ;)