[2010 Insignia 1.8] Random Sticky Brakes - Do these piston seals look ok?

[2010stickybrakes]

Posting on behalf of a friend - They have a 2010 Insignia 1.8.

He's been experiencing random brake drag, which makes a scraping / screeching sound which is very audible, but random. If the brakes are applied gently it stops. The rear right wheel has been getting the warmest, but he reports no real change in MPG.

I'm an MX5 driver and have had this same sort of issue on my car. I ended up replacing all the calipers due to coroded pistons, but a short term fix was to replace the pads with new ones to push the piston back in to the caliper further avoiding the corrosion. Therefore, that was my first port of call with my friends Insignia.

However, all the pads are really thick, looking relatively new, so this wasn't possible. However the piston seals on the rear two calipers look odd, so thought i'd post them on here and see if anyone has any advice.

Being random, its making me think it could be electrical / ABS related... Any ideas would be great

Cheers!

[RBH]

Posting on behalf of a friend - They have a 2010 Insignia 1.8.

He's been experiencing random brake drag, which makes a scraping / screeching sound which is very audible, but random. If the brakes are applied gently it stops. The rear right wheel has been getting the warmest, but he reports no real change in MPG.

I'm an MX5 driver and have had this same sort of issue on my car. I ended up replacing all the calipers due to coroded pistons, but a short term fix was to replace the pads with new ones to push the piston back in to the caliper further avoiding the corrosion. Therefore, that was my first port of call with my friends Insignia.

However, all the pads are really thick, looking relatively new, so this wasn't possible. However the piston seals on the rear two calipers look odd, so thought i'd post them on here and see if anyone has any advice.

Being random, its making me think it could be electrical / ABS related... Any ideas would be great

Cheers!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6804[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6805[/ATTACH]

hi and weclome
Can't understand why you joined and not "your friend" as they have the car and not you.
Anyway....
we always like when new members join our forum.
would you care to visit this section of the forum...………….

https://insignia-drivers.uk/forums/3...-Introductions

and introduce yourself properly to everyone.

Tell us a bit about yourself and maybe share a pic or 2 of your car.

Thanks...………...much appreciated.

[2010stickybrakes]

Fair point!

He's not mechanically minded, and just uses the Insignia as an AtoB car, so no enthusiam for it like most of you guys have. We're only young, so avoiding the garage for problems like this can save a lot of cash...

I'm into my cars so I said I would have a look for him, hence this post. IF these piston seals look ok, then it must be something else causing his brake binding.

Help would be appreciated. Another point to note is that the brake binding seems to be less prominant on cold days vs hot days. Maybe this is a coincidence, but i've had similar issues with hydraulic brakes on my bike due to degraded seals in the master cylinder.

[RBH]

Tbh mate.... looking at the pictures....them calipers are goosed.

Only way is to rebuild the caliper or my personal opinion is replace the full caliper.

But if you can go and do N introduction, it'll be appreciated, as we like to keep the forum tidy

Cheers

Rab.....

[2010stickybrakes]

Introduction done! Cheers

That was my assumption - Didn't expect the seals to be all twisted like that. I'd just replace the calipers instead of rebuilding as the pistons are corroded too.

Anyone got anymore comments?

[RBH]

Introduction done! Cheers

That was my assumption - Didn't expect the seals to be all twisted like that. I'd just replace the calipers instead of rebuilding as the pistons are corroded too.

Anyone got anymore comments?

In over 40 years with cars, I've never seen seals as bad as that.

[Drew]

In over 40 years with cars, I've never seen seals as bad as that.

Looks like the pistons have been wound back whilst the seals are stuck to them.thead

[2010stickybrakes]

Yeah, that was my thought when I saw them!

We'll get two new rear calipers and see if that fixes the issue.

Cheers

[RBH]

It's probably been caused by burst seals letting in crap, then through time and constantly being used, the seals have been full of crap as the piston rusts....causing them to fail.

What I can't comprehend is how it passed brake tests in MOTs

[ade555]

This can be sorted fairly easy but you will have to check the piston it self, lift the rubber and post pic of the piston, to explain in writing what you need to do takes longer then the job it self, where the rubber got stuck is right at the end and this twist the rubber as you push/turn piston back in, not the first time I have seen this and from pic doesn't look the rubber is damaged. Binding brake could be down to slider pins corroded, when you apply brake piston moves out slightly and pushes pad as you only have piston on one end calipers rely on sliders to push the other side pad to disk, if sliders are stuck it won't let go and you get drag, but telling you on forum what is wrong with the pictures you have posted is hard.

Buying new calipers with out looking at the piston first is waste of money in my book