Last week my car brakes were making a noise. With an upcoming 1000 mile car trip in my I brought it to the dealer and asked them to check the brakes. They called and said the front brakes needed to be done - I said go ahead and they fixed them. A week later, in the middle of NJ, the back brakes made a terrible noise. I drove home - no traffic - just highway. I took it back to the dealer and they said the rear caliper seized and wore down the brake pads, and damaged the rotor. My question is could this have been prevented if they had inspected the back brakes the week prior? The cost to fix this is now double than if they had fixed the brakes without the caliper and rotor damage. Thanks for any info!
They might have checked them and they may have been fine. Seizing happens suddenly and signs that a caliper is going to seize soon don’t usually exist. It’s unpredictable.
Thank you. That at least makes me feel better.
I agree with mountainbike that most of the time a calipure seizure is unpredictable. If the shop removed the wheel and checked the brakes they may or may not have seen signs of impending failure. Things to look for would be signs of excessive heat, one pad worn considerably more then the other, large amounts of rust build up on the caliper slide area, etc.
That being said even if they could have told you the caliper was going to seize it wouldn’t have been much cheaper. The shop would have still needed to replace the caliper. They may have been able to save the rotor but once you factor in that they would have had to remove it and turn it the additional cost is negligable.
~Michael