I've mentioned to a few that the black car has a bit of an end swapping tendancy when braking hard

Since I rebuilt the rear calipers a year ago I've always known where the problem is - the 15 year old fronts have seized I figured.

Well I was right
Very right

On the left is an old but usable piston from the rear caliper. On the right is an absolutely shagged one as eventually removed from the front caliper. Visual inspection showed a failed dust seal allowing extensive rusting. The piston was very seized in the caliper...


In fact the piston was sooo seized it looked like this after hours of struggling to get it out. Eventually I managed to flatten it enough with mole grips to hammer a gurtmongous 1 1/4" Whitworth over it and with plenty of heat it eventually started to rotate. It took me most of the morning to get this [expletive deleted ] out


Interestingly both inner pistons showed signs of failure while both outers where "fine"

The worst bit is I know I've got the same thing to come on t'other side as while there is a bowel trembling tendancy for the car to swap ends under brakes it stops in a striaght line prior to the arrival of the main event

I should have binned the calipers and bought new Budwegs to avoid the hassle but I already have a seal kit and pistons are only £10 + a cocktail from Mr T....and I'm a cheapskate


Oh well..... once more unto the breach

Slightly off topic, I was most suprised that I can get genuine Mr T calipers brand new for only 210. I thought there'd be many more 0 than that involved

My silver car was exactly the same in the attempting to swap ends department. Turned out one of my pistons on NSF was seized to buggery.

New Car seems ok, but well worth investigation due to age it seems.

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Chris
ST205 with a little help from a ST215...

So maybee the other side won't be as bad

Well, you never know

uh-oh, dust seal not looking good. Straight to BROWN ALERT


Piston doesn't look too bad. Perhaps a little corroded....


Until you look at this side that it


Yes, it too put up a fight. In fact more of a fight that the other caliper. You can also see where large flakes of rust have come away from the bore of the piston. Most worrying, a plug of rust detached from the bottom of the bore. The floor of the piston is now very thin and may be approaching the point of failure



The air around here is so blue now that I didn't even notice a couple of smurfs had moved into my shed until they knocked on the door to complain about the language

I think corrosion of the pistons is quite common. My Stormy Blue ST205 had amazingly effective brakes BUT acceleration was strangely lacking. Turned out that so much water had got into the brake lines that the brake master cylinder was partially seized When I drained the fluid it was a lovely shade of orange Once that was all fixed I couldn't believe how much better the acceleration was!

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

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ST165 turbo 4WD
ST185 GT-FOUR RC Carlos Sainz Limited Edition 825•5000
ST185 turbo 4WD Carlos Sainz Limited Edition 2541•5000

I remember how great the brakes were on my Supersport until it ground to a halt after 1/2 a mile with the disk glowing yellow

Mind I replaced the entire brake system including servo for less than the cost of a single 205 caliper piston