Gs Seized Rear Caliper? Don't Let Lexus Fleece You.

[Animal Mother]

My wife took her GS450h into Lexus for the fuel pipe recall. Nicely, they did a once over of the car and picked up on a NSR seized caliper. They also quoted £325 if we wanted it sorted.

Skip forward a few weeks and I managed to take a look at it today. For the princely sum of £0.25 we now have a caliper that slides sumptuously.

Wheel off.

Pads out.

19mm slide bolt out.

Wiggle the caliper back and forth and knock it off the fixed slide pin.

Clean up.

Emery cloth on the bottom slide pin.

Grease it all up.

Put it all back together.

1 hour later (max) and all is sorted.

So, before you let Lexus fit a new caliper for you, try to sort it yourself.

[steve2006]

Good result :)

Not sure if this is correct but pretty sure I heard that during a service Lexus don't regrease the caliper pins as part of the brake service.

[ColinBarber]

Best to relube yourself every couple of years as preventative maintenance.

Giving the dealer the benefit of the doubt, until they remove the calliper they don't know if a clean up is enough so they quoted worst case. In reality I doubt many dealer would actual try and clean up an old calliper and pin, easier to fit a new one.

[Animal Mother]

Best to relube yourself every couple of years as preventative maintenance.

Giving the dealer the benefit of the doubt, until they remove the calliper they don't know if a clean up is enough so they quoted worst case. In reality I doubt many dealer would actual try and clean up an old calliper and pin, easier to fit a new one.

That's just the thing, it isn't easier to fit a new caliper.

[Animal Mother]

Good result :)

Not sure if this is correct but pretty sure I heard that during a service Lexus don't regrease the caliper pins as part of the brake service.

I can easily believe this. Mine were in a **** state.

[ColinBarber]

Best to relube yourself every couple of years as preventative maintenance.

Giving the dealer the benefit of the doubt, until they remove the calliper they don't know if a clean up is enough so they quoted worst case. In reality I doubt many dealer would actual try and clean up an old calliper and pin, easier to fit a new one.

That's just the thing, it isn't easier to fit a new caliper.

more profitable is probably a better choice of words ;)

[madfish]

I have mine to do, have managed to find replacement rear calipers at £80 each and fitting is pretty straight forward  it before I do that I'll strip mine and try and refurbish them.

Have rebuilt brakes many times on other cars in the past with great results so fingers crossed I have the same good fortune with these

[bobmc]

I think I might have an issue with my rear brakes. Just got back from a half-hour drive, noticeable heat from rear wheels, alloys were cool but you could feel warm air around the wheels while the fronts were cool. The rear discs were hot to the touch.

 

 

[Verbout]

On 30 August 2015 at 8:39 PM, steve2006 said:

Good result :)

Not sure if this is correct but pretty sure I heard that during a service Lexus don't regrease the caliper pins as part of the brake service.

I can guarantee they don't.

Bought my three year old car with three Lexus service stamps.

Checked over the car as I do and the rear calipers both sides were seized solid. I had to knock seven bells out of them with a rubber hammer. They were so solid I thought I had come across a new design of caliper.

I believe the calipers had never ever seen a technician's tool in all three visits to Lexus.

I check mine every year, after releasing them, and they slide off as if just put together at the factory.

A lot of the checks at the Lexus service are visuals, not physical checks.

I would bet 99% of the time you dont need to replace, just refurb.

[Shahpor]

What they seem to do is, with the car on the ramp, they grab the slider from the top and bottom and give it a pull back and forth.

Apparently, there should be a little slack in it.

If not, then they determine that it is seized, like one of mine was.

I have the video somewhere showing the technician pulling the NS one, which moves a little, and then the OS which is seized solid.

Luckily, my extended warranty handled the cost of its replacement.

[Verbout]

 Wouldn't trust them to put my car on the ramp. :)

[JoshW]

Have just fixed this problem also. My rear nearside caliper slide pin was rusted so the caliper was stiff as a board, so I took to it with a hammer and some penetrating spray. Took a bit of persuasion but it managed to come off, to which I cleaned the slide pin up with some wet and dry paper, along with the inner bore where the slide pin goes in the caliper. Checked all the seals and re-seated with some red rubber grease, lubed the slide pin and bore up with some caliper grease and fitted all back together. Works perfectly now, worth doing the other side also just as a preventative.

Lexus also quoted me the £325 for a replacement caliper

[Verbout]

On 26 September 2016 at 1:44 PM, JoshW said:

Have just fixed this problem also. My rear nearside caliper slide pin was rusted so the caliper was stiff as a board, so I took to it with a hammer and some penetrating spray. Took a bit of persuasion but it managed to come off, to which I cleaned the slide pin up with some wet and dry paper, along with the inner bore where the slide pin goes in the caliper. Checked all the seals and re-seated with some red rubber grease, lubed the slide pin and bore up with some caliper grease and fitted all back together. Works perfectly now, worth doing the other side also just as a preventative.

Lexus also quoted me the £325 for a replacement caliper

Couple of hours steady work once a year.