Seized caliper

Pompeyscouser · January 22, 2020

Last week I noticed an overheating front disc and put it in, today, with Lexus Hedge End. To cut a long story short, apparently the caliper was seized. I had to have a new caliper fitted but the disc had also warped necessitating replacement of both front discs (no point in just doing the warped one) and new pads fitted. Lexus Hedge End were very good and I highly recommend them. However, they told me they had never seen this problem before and were going to send the defective caliper on to Lexus for their assessment. By the way, the car is an is300h f sport (65 plate) with 45000 miles on the clock. The reason I am posting this is to see if any others have had this problem before or am I just unlucky. Thanks for a response.

Jayw13702 · January 22, 2020

Last week I noticed an overheating front disc and put it in, today, with Lexus Hedge End. To cut a long story short, apparently the caliper was seized. I had to have a new caliper fitted but the disc had also warped necessitating replacement of both front discs (no point in just doing the warped one) and new pads fitted. Lexus Hedge End were very good and I highly recommend them. However, they told me they had never seen this problem before and were going to send the defective caliper on to Lexus for their assessment. By the way, the car is an is300h f sport (65 plate) with 45000 miles on the clock. The reason I am posting this is to see if any others have had this problem before or am I just unlucky. Thanks for a response.

My 63 plate IS300H has suffered seized sliders recently.

Sadly because of the mileage I have done (140,000 miles) Lexus would not be interested in mine.

As an aside my rears are starting to stick so I have bought a set of used callipers from eBay that I am now overhauling to put on mine soon.

Sadly Toyota have a terrible reputation for sticking callipers, especially the rears

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Texas · January 22, 2020

Problem is the slide pins on said calipers, they do need regular ( ideally every 6 months) maintainance to keep them free moving but alas this is not a detailed item in any service schedule so it is a case of 'When and Not if' unless you state specifically to have it done at service time or do it yourself.

PaulWhitt20 · January 22, 2020

My front caliper was seized last year and replaced under extended warranty. I paid for new disks and pads (both sides)

It’s going in tomorrow for air con compressor replacement and regas. Again under warranty. I will have got my money’s worth from the warranty.

65 plate 40,000 miles.

Thanks

Paul

Inazone · January 25, 2020

Been thinking about taking a look at mine. Need some paint on the calipers too. Anyone got a diagram of the calipers?

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200h · January 25, 2020

this is the only diagram i have of the caliper

http://jp-carparts.com/toyota/partlist.php?maker=toyota&type=242130&cartype=7&fig=4705

BigChange · January 26, 2020

With a 48,000 miles 15 plate IS 300 I was alarmed to read PaulWhitt's problems. Am due for a service in a month. Was the aircon compressor failure very noticeable and is a regas covered by warranty ?

Britprius · January 26, 2020

1 hour ago, BigChange said:

With a 48,000 miles 15 plate IS 300 I was alarmed to read PaulWhitt's problems. Am due for a service in a month. Was the aircon compressor failure very noticeable and is a regas covered by warranty ?

Yes. Even if the compressor did not fail if the AC looses gas in the guarantee period there must be a leak that requires fixing, and the gas restoring to make the AC work. If the AC is working then you cannot expect an AC service for no reason.

John.

Paul Brooksbank · January 28, 2020

On 1/25/2020 at 12:08 PM, 200h said:

this is the only diagram i have of the caliper

http://jp-carparts.com/toyota/partlist.php?maker=toyota&type=242130&cartype=7&fig=4705

Thanks for that, I'll check mine when the weather warms up a bit.

Linas.P · January 28, 2020

mk2 IS was notorious for calipers issues and the caliper design stayed the same in principle so I would not be surprised if mk3 with the age and mileage will start showing similar issues.

Pompeyscouser · January 29, 2020

Many thanks for all the responses. I would really like to know what Lexus think about this “potential” issue. I don’t know what the exact failure mode was on my caliper but I will try and find out from Lexus Hedge End and see if they have had any comment from Lexus. If I get any further details I will let the community know. Thanks again to those who responded, it’s really good to know that there are so many of you out there who care enough about their cars to bother.

Paul Brooksbank · January 29, 2020

To be honest, lubricating the sliders isn't a big job, but if you're unable to do it yourself, asking Lexus to do it on a service should prompt them to add it to the list, however, it would possibly add an hour to the labour charge if you can stand that on the bill.

We had a Mercedes SLK200 that suffered from seized calipers regularly, along with broken suspension springs, rattles and squeaks, I'll never entertain another one, that's for sure.

darrude · April 17, 2020

Just changed my discs and pads, out of 8 slider pins, 5 were seized, but could be worked free, 1 completely stuck, so going to have another go at it when the replacement pins arrive.

15 plates with 65,000 miles on it.

also pads stuck in the housing requiring a hammer to remove.

Paul Brooksbank · April 17, 2020

Interesting Darren. Were the brakes showing any signs of binding prior to this? I consider mine to be working freely if I can roll the car by taking my foot off the brakes on a gentle slope.

The pads needing a hammer to remove is quite normal in my experience due to corrosion on the upper and lower edge of the backing plates.

Jayw13702 · April 17, 2020

mk2 IS was notorious for calipers issues and the caliper design stayed the same in principle so I would not be surprised if mk3 with the age and mileage will start showing similar issues.

Looks like we are already at that point with some of the earlier cars.

The basic design of the caliper was used throughout the Toyota range and have been renown for giving problems for as long as I can remember.
Every single Toyota I have owned has had to have its rear calipers overhauled and the problem has always been the slider pins.
The main piston never gives any issues as long as the rubber boot is in good condition, I ended up overhauling a good low mileage set of rear calipers for my IS, once I had the old calipers off I overhauled them with new pins/boots etc and have kept them for a rainy day. Or I may sell them if they are knocking about for too long

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Paul Brooksbank · April 17, 2020

Not as bad as Mercedes sliders and pistons, I've seen no end of problems with those, and at mileages as low as 16,000 on our "biggest mistake" purchase, an SLK 200, this was accompanied by a broken suspension spring.

I made my wife trade it for an MX5, the fifth one we've owned in 20 years, with no problems other than the odd linkage bush perishing.

Inazone · April 17, 2020

Are the front calipers more prone to seizers or the rears? Just wondering, as had the rear wheels off yesterday and the calipers felt like they were moving fairly freely.... Not looked at the front yet. But is on my list of jobs to do...

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steve2006 · April 17, 2020

Big Redd are doing some very decent discounts on their rebuild kits at the moment for a lot of Lexus models, these include in some kits the slide pins and new pistons.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_sac=1&_ssn=biggred4u&item=282516551499&_osacat=63717&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=lexus+brake+calliper&_sacat=63717

Jayw13702 · April 17, 2020

Are the front calipers more prone to seizers or the rears? Just wondering, as had the rear wheels off yesterday and the calipers felt like they were moving fairly freely.... Not looked at the front yet. But is on my list of jobs to do...

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I don’t think the fronts suffered badly as calipers, possibly because the front calipers do get more use than the calipers.
And I have only ever overhauled one set of front calipers in my time owning Toyota/Lexus products

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darrude · April 17, 2020

2 hours ago, Paul Brooksbank said:

Interesting Darren. Were the brakes showing any signs of binding prior to this? I consider mine to be working freely if I can roll the car by taking my foot off the brakes on a gentle slope.

The pads needing a hammer to remove is quite normal in my experience due to corrosion on the upper and lower edge of the backing plates.

Well funny you say that. It was the state of the rears why I bought the kit, decided to get a full kit then have the bits for when the fronts need doing. Changed the rears first (disc's heavily scorched), went on a test drive (also to test foot park brake), rolled away fine on a slight incline.

Only really because it was a nice day and lock down did I think sod it i'll do the fronts, and my god the discs were red hot from the short test drive. Condition of the disc's weren't great, but not really in need of urgent replacement, although were starting to show signs of scorching.

I always remember when I first got the car, thinking the brakes feel very good, I was thinking recently they just don't feel like I remember but I guess with it been progressive, it's hard to tell the difference, hopefully i'll notice when I get it back on the road.

I'd defo check yours, mine is mainly a motorway cruiser, and live and work just off motorway junctions. The pads probably had 80% life left, so guess mine is more prone than most due to high mileage but low brake usage (if that makes sense).

wharfhouse · April 17, 2020

4 hours ago, darrude said:

Well funny you say that. It was the state of the rears why I bought the kit, decided to get a full kit then have the bits for when the fronts need doing. Changed the rears first (disc's heavily scorched), went on a test drive (also to test foot park brake), rolled away fine on a slight incline.

Only really because it was a nice day and lock down did I think sod it i'll do the fronts, and my god the discs were red hot from the short test drive. Condition of the disc's weren't great, but not really in need of urgent replacement, although were starting to show signs of scorching.

I always remember when I first got the car, thinking the brakes feel very good, I was thinking recently they just don't feel like I remember but I guess with it been progressive, it's hard to tell the difference, hopefully i'll notice when I get it back on the road.

I'd defo check yours, mine is mainly a motorway cruiser, and live and work just off motorway junctions. The pads probably had 80% life left, so guess mine is more prone than most due to high mileage but low brake usage (if that makes sense).

Mine is a 2014 IS 300h - I opted to have my front discs and pads changed when I had front wheel bearings replaced (bearings under extended warranty) a few months ago at just over 80,000 miles as the discs were close to minimum thickness when measured - I do a mix of motorway and general driving. Lexus dealer did the work and never mentioned anything about the calipers being an issue.

ColinBarber · April 17, 2020

8 hours ago, darrude said:

Just changed my discs and pads, out of 8 slider pins, 5 were seized, but could be worked free, 1 completely stuck, so going to have another go at it when the replacement pins arrive.

15 plates with 65,000 miles on it.

also pads stuck in the housing requiring a hammer to remove.

Best to pull the sliding pins out and re-grease every 30k miles/3 years to avoid this, maybe even every two years after you have done it the first time when the vehicle is three years old. Not sure why Lexus don't add it to their service schedule - affects all Toyota vehicles that use the sliding calliper design - other than they probably make too much revenue selling new callipers/carriers from all the vehicles with seized ones.

One good thing about the GS and LS - they don't use this brake design.

darrude · April 20, 2020

Well completely agree with colin on that, this the old pin that that had seized, I reckon another few months and I wouldnt have managed to free it.

On my wifes old rx I had to drill one out once.

Malc · April 20, 2020

1 hour ago, darrude said:

Well completely agree with colin on that, this the old pin that that had seized, I reckon another few months and I wouldnt have managed to free it.

On my wifes old rx I had to drill one out once.

my offside rear was much worse a couple of months ago after 35k miles since the last time they were pulled apart ... but duly freed up and now working properly ....... my indy is quite industrious ......... the red brake dash light was permanently on that caused me to have the brakes overhauled

Malc