Hi,
I'm new here to the J car forums having recently acquired a 95 Sunbird Convertible that of course, needs a head gasket and possibly an entire rebuild for the engine oil resembles watery mud. It does have a virtually perfect body, top and interior which is why I picked it up. Mechanics doesn't faze me, I do dislike rust and dent repairs! 125,000 miles and the drivers door hinge pins are not even worn out!
Now to the point of my post..........
My front brake calipers are slowly leaking brake fluid. I'm not at all new to the world of auto repair and have generally felt that it was almost always better to replace rather than to rebuild a brake caliper. This point is driven home by often being unable to obtain the needed parts for many brands. Rust pitting in the piston bore is often a major problem with calipers and it is silly to rebuild only to deal with a leak!
Curiously, I see that caliper rebuild kits and pistons are readily available from almost every parts source I look at. Is this a common practice with these cars or is it advisable to simply install new or factory rebuilt calipers?
I also see a previous owner has unplugged the anti-lock sensors at the front axle hub and then zip tied the loose wire to the lower aframe. This I'll have to investigate further once I'm up and running to see if the sensor is bad, the wheel ring is bad or if this is a more serious problem with the anti-lock control components, but that is another post for a later date.
FYI ...... I did do a search on rebuilding calipers and came up empty in the 3rd Gen Forum, the Brake forum and also in Maintenance, hence this post. I say this only because I've been on some well known other brand forums that really beat up people who fail to search for answers before creating a new post. There has already been a lot of information I've needed that I did find by using the search function such as "where is that darned paint code plate that should be on the firewall?!?!?" (Spare wheel cover, bottom) or "where is the rear window power switch?" (there isn't one, they go down with the top) among others.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Dave
I think you answered your own question.
But I've rebuilt calipers successfully. However, it takes longer to do that than to simply replace. It's really a matter of money and whether you want to maybe have to do the whole job over again if they still leak.
2.2 97 Cavalier......the "Crapalier"
