I am no expert when it comes to brakes but I would be very hesitant to take those calipers apart. I would try bleeding the fluid first. Are you sure you are pushing the piston in evenly? It does not take much to get the piston cocked in the walls of the cylinder which would make it nigh impossible to push it in.

You may want to contact the moderator of the brake forum and see what he thinks.

 

Don't take the caliper apart. If the piston is frozen you will not be able to service it yourself. For about $120 you can get a semi-loaded rebuilt caliper. Swapping, at least on my tundra's front brakes, is a matter of disconnecting the brake line and removing two bolts, then the reverse and bleeding the brakes. You can tell if it's the piston by removing the brake pads and using a large pair of pliers to try and force each piston back into the housing. If any of them don't budge, you need a new caliper. I took one of my old ones apart, I wouldn't recommend it if you're planning on using them again. You can't access anything useful that way anyway. Rebuilding the caliper requires special tools.

Sounds like you have a stuck caliper. It could be the pins too. Check the pins that hold the brake pads in place. If that have buildup on them they can keep the pads from retracting properly. You can clean them up with fine sandpaper or a gentle wire brush, coat them with high-temp anti-seize and they will work again.

 

He's not talking about taking the caliper apart. The Sequoia has a single piston floating rear caliper which is different to the four piston fixed front caliper on the Sequoia and Tundra.

I took off the left rear caliper, and was pushing the piston back in without difficulty. When I tried to pull the outside of the caliper further out to make room for the new pad, I had a harder time doing so. I suspect that the caliper is not running smoothly, and that may be why the left side wore so prematurely.

My question, is can I just remove the two bolts that hold the caliper together and see if that's where my problem is? If its corroded, can I just clean it up and lube it to get back to normal, or will I need to do a caliper replacement (never done that before).

Yes, you should remove the two bolts. The factory repair manual calls them sliding pins and they run inside bushings in the floating side of the caliper. Also remove the rubber boots and the plugs at the end of the bushings. Then clean the pins and the bushings with a suitable solvent - e.g. acetone - and clean the rubber boots and plugs with a shop rag. Lube everything with caliper grease, reassemble, and your floating caliper should float again.

 

Thread moved to the Brakes forum.

:repair:

 

Thanks mibro,

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm off to AutoZone to get the stuff this morning.

Regards,

Boris