Last night on the way home, Rt 183 came to a screeching halt. My "screeching" involved the car swerving to the left really hard on brake application. The rest of the way home I smelled burning brake pads. Well when I finally reached my exit, I had a nice pulsation. I'd noticed a slight pull to the right for a few days now and recall the same swerve to the left a few weeks ago. By the time I reached the dry cleaners drive-thru across from my apartment, my brake pedal was near the floor. Boiled brake fluid thanks to a frozen right front caliper. By the time I parked, the right front wheel was burning hot and the left was "warm". Guess what I'm doing tonight ?!?!

I left to work early this morning to avoid traffic, and figured in the cooler weather, I wouldn't boil the fluid. Success on that part. I put the car on a lift at 6:30am and started the PB Blasting. I have a funny feeling I'll be breaking some brake lines tonight. Gonna replace front calipers and front & rear hoses. If you're in the neighborhood after 6pm tonight, bring a chair, some popcorn and watch the multi-lingual cursing. Just bring a welders mask and some kevlar for "flying tool" protection. Observe at your own risk !!!!!

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Sharing my partner's 2012 Forte 5dr SX til I find my next 123 or 126..
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Do I miss being a service advisor ???

I had my calipers seize on my 300D recently but I feel part of the reason was that the car hadn't been driven for over 6 years. I'm surprised that could happen on a daily driver.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Doesn't surprise me. Even tho I drive it daily since I got it last April, it only has 247K - 232 when I got it. The P/O only put 4000 miles on it in the 4 years he had it. All 4 rotors were pitted to $hit when I got it.

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Sharing my partner's 2012 Forte 5dr SX til I find my next 123 or 126..
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Do I miss being a service advisor ???

I guess there's probably a good reason to change the brake fluid on a regular basis on these cars.
Good luck.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Left caliper is a week away... Right one and hoses should be here in a few hours.

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Sharing my partner's 2012 Forte 5dr SX til I find my next 123 or 126..
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Do I miss being a service advisor ???

This is where obsessive compulsive preventative maintenance comes in. I replaced all my brake hoses a few years ago, and replace my brake fluid every 1-2 years. Have never had a brake problem.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

I've had cars that I had owned over 10 years where I never changed the brake fluid. I never had any caliper problems with them. They weren't Mercedes either.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I don't really see caliper problems with late model cars when brake fluid is neglected. We just see ABS pumps go bad... lol.

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Sharing my partner's 2012 Forte 5dr SX til I find my next 123 or 126..
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Do I miss being a service advisor ???

dang it!! I was hoping to make it by there this evening Ronny. I even had the Hazets in the car, but work didn't cooperate. I hope the work is going/went well......

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

My dad said the same thing with his old truck, "you never need to change brake fluid, I havn't done it ever and my truck is 12 years old."

Well when he did his front brakes on a farce since he got some brake fluid on special at NAPA he flushed them like I do to my car every spring.

Now he flush's the brakes everytime he changes pads. The 12 year old black as tar brake fluid, plus the greatly improved pedal feel made even my very frugal dad agree that spending $3 and 10 minutes every few years is probably a pretty good idea.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I may think differently about our ABS equipped Acura. On the others, I'll follow the owner's manual on the brake fluid flush schedule.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

All went surprisingly well. All 4 hoses came off without a hitch. I only replaced the right caliper since the left one is 10 days away. I didn't drive it home tho. I couldn't find a pressure bleeder at 9:15pm so I gravity bled for 15 minutes. Seemed like no air in the system but when I went to back out, the pedal was spongy so I slummed a ride home. I took a 2008 Audi S8... OMFG !!! Hmm, what's the employee discount ?

And I only cursed in 2 languages..

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Sharing my partner's 2012 Forte 5dr SX til I find my next 123 or 126..
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Do I miss being a service advisor ???

Trade for 2008 S8.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I think the kid in the black WRX is STILL sitting at that red light..

Torque everywhere in the rev band. Cruising at 75 mph and there's a nice,distant Lambo exhaust note. Get LOUD with the pedal and the butterflies open up in the mufflers and it hauls ass. Rides surprisingly well for wearing 265/35ZR 20 Yokohama Advan Sports and the 15 inch front rotors just haul it to a stop. And being used to Quattro from my W8(and Skip Barber training ) it certainly drifts nicely. Now if I can only take the manual R8 home tonight.....

"Gimme something big. Something I can shove. AWDEE S8...."

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Sharing my partner's 2012 Forte 5dr SX til I find my next 123 or 126..
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Do I miss being a service advisor ???

I love big German sedans...

The only thing that can make a big German sedan better...is a V12.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200