Brakes overheated-must I replace calipers

randallb wrote:
blue,
When a million dollar settlement is involved everyone's outlook changes. I did not mean any offense with my statement just explaining the severe possibilities of your decision or a shop's decision. One example of how people's outlooks change is my BF's son's BF. He weaseled his way in to a weekend river trip. They left on Friday and the kid turned 18 on Saturday. After he dove off of someone else's boat Sunday and turned himself in to a quad guess who got sued. The judge found for the kid's family because he was a minor when my BF and his wife assumed responsibility for him on Friday. Even a BF or his family sues when lifetime costs are incurred. Also, it may not be you suing the individual or the shop. If you hit some one due to brake failure everyone involved will be sued. Such is the liability umbrella that exists. Your insurance company is going to do everything in their power to minimize their loss.
Randy

I completely understand where you're coming from. Safety is definitely, and must always be, the number 1 issue.

As most of us have found out, there are two types of mechanics out there....one throws news parts at every problem, until things are eventually fixed, and you pay the huge bill.
The other type of mechanic actually checks everything and replaces only those items that needs replacing. They are the ones that are skilled enough to know when a part is actually bad and cannot be rebuilt or just cleaned up.
Trying to find a good trustworthy mechanic is the main reason why a lot of us do our own work.
Even with brakes, there are very few instances when every part needs to be replaced. A skilled mechanic will know what needs to be done. If you trust the guy doing the work, then just let him do his job.

blue,
When a million dollar settlement is involved everyone's outlook changes. I did not mean any offense with my statement just explaining the severe possibilities of your decision or a shop's decision. One example of how people's outlooks change is my BF's son's BF. He weaseled his way in to a weekend river trip. They left on Friday and the kid turned 18 on Saturday. After he dove off of someone else's boat Sunday and turned himself in to a quad guess who got sued. The judge found for the kid's family because he was a minor when my BF and his wife assumed responsibility for him on Friday. Even a BF or his family sues when lifetime costs are incurred. Also, it may not be you suing the individual or the shop. If you hit some one due to brake failure everyone involved will be sued. Such is the liability umbrella that exists. Your insurance company is going to do everything in their power to minimize their loss.
Randy

randallb wrote:
blue,
You do not have to anything you do not want to. Neither does the repair shop. He recommended caliper replacement and now the decision is yours. He is the one that writes the check for the liability insurance each month and understands what heat does to brake components. If you decided not to replace the calipers, one of them fails and something catastrophic happens you are not going to sue yourself. You will blame the repair facility or an attorney will convince you that someone other than you, or your insurance, needs to pay for the injuries and/or deaths that occurred. Since the shop has already recommended the replacement any deviation from this recommendation will turn in to an admission of guilt in a court case. The judge or jury will come to the simple conclusion that the repair facility should have known better. After all they were the professionals receiving compensation for their services.
Every shop owner out there has lost at least one small claims court case to this reasoning if he has been in business for any length of time. It all comes down to liability and if you want it done your way then do the work yourself and assume the liability for your decisions.
Randy

That's not really the situation:
1) There is no shop involved. A retired heavy duty mechanic at the RV Park is the one looking at doing the work.
2) He did NOT recommend replacing the calipers. He figures that just lubricating the pins with anti-seize lube will do the trick. I'm the one who's wondering if the calipers shouldn't be changed at the same time.
3) As far as me blaming the repair facility in the event of an accident, I find that statement highly offensive. Perhaps it would be better if you actually knew me before assuming that I'm the type who would do that. Not all people are built with the kind of mentality that goes around blaming other people when we, ourselves, are to blame.
Having grown up in Canada, our culture is Completely different when it comes to involving lawyers in things. For us, lawsuits are generally frowned upon except in extreme circumstances. We see lawsuits as kind of an immoral thing to do. Often, even in the event that a lawsuit is completely justified, we don't go that route. My father was run over & killed some years ago & I'm sure that I would have had good grounds for a lawsuit, but that's just not how things are done. Lawyers don't "talk us" into anything.

blue,
You do not have to anything you do not want to. Neither does the repair shop. He recommended caliper replacement and now the decision is yours. He is the one that writes the check for the liability insurance each month and understands what heat does to brake components. If you decided not to replace the calipers, one of them fails and something catastrophic happens you are not going to sue yourself. You will blame the repair facility or an attorney will convince you that someone other than you, or your insurance, needs to pay for the injuries and/or deaths that occurred. Since the shop has already recommended the replacement any deviation from this recommendation will turn in to an admission of guilt in a court case. The judge or jury will come to the simple conclusion that the repair facility should have known better. After all they were the professionals receiving compensation for their services.
Every shop owner out there has lost at least one small claims court case to this reasoning if he has been in business for any length of time. It all comes down to liability and if you want it done your way then do the work yourself and assume the liability for your decisions.
Randy

Lobstah wrote:

Artum Snowbird wrote:
It's not the pads that stuck, it's the calipers that didn't release the pads.

Replace them without a doubt.

If it's on a Workhorse Chassis from 2004-2008, there was a recall issued and honored by Navistar, current owner of Workhorse. You can put your VIN number into the Navistar website and it will tell you if you're impacted.

The problem was with a certain series of Bosch calipers, btw.


Jim

***edit***

Looks like Bud and rja beat me to the punch :)

The Workhorse recall went earlier than 2004. It covered W20 and W22 chassis. My 2003 was part of the problem and recall. I had a similar problem on my '89 E350 that was 2 years old.

Just went threw this and I would at least have the calipers rebuilt with a stainless steel pistons and new hoses from the steel lines to the calipers, along with new rotors, unless they haven't been damaged by the heat, and of coarse new pads and fluid.. Mike Mathews..

Braided metal brake lines normally have rubber lines inside. They can still fail.

Thanks guys for all the ideas. I'm meeting with the mechanic this afternoon. I've listed some things from your replies that I'll be asking him about. I have a Roadmaster chassis. I called Holiday Rambler a month or so ago to check about the caliper recall & they stated that my RV isn't involved, fortunately. I replaced the rubber hoses with braided metal ones a few years ago & the fluid was changed out in August. So, hopefully that will help the mechanic narrow down the problem. Right now I'm leaning towards changing the calipers just to be on the safe side. Thanks again for all your replies.

Executive wrote:
Since your rear brakes failed in August and were completely replaced, did they not check the fronts???..It seems strange that your rear brakes would fail completely and then the front brakes would go out completely a month later. I'm thinking there's something wrong with this picture.....Dennis

I'm thinking exactly the same thing...I did call the shop that did the back brakes. They stated that they didn't check the front brakes or touch them at all. They also stated that the front brake issue wouldn't have anything to do with the back brake issue. Seems too much to be just a coincidence though.