Corolla Caliper pin frozen - what next?

Before buying a new caliper, you may be able to free the stuck pin. (I can't take all the credit; a couple people here in this group helped me with the same thing a couple weeks ago...)

Here's what I did:

You may or may not have to remove the caliper from the car. It will make life easier, but you'll lose the fluid to that brake and risk running the Master Cylinder dry. Try to prop the caliper up on a milk crate or something.

Try to push the pin out with the end of a ratchet or something similar. It's going to be TOUGH! You can grab it with a pari of vice grips and twist and pull; this puts teeth marks on the pin. Don't grab the chamfer where the grease seal sits or below that.

Once you get the pin out, CAREFULLY remove the rubber boot.

Get some emery cloth. What I did was use the emery cloth to sand down the pin, and then used 1200 grit sandpaper to 'polish' it and get it nice and smooth.

But, it STILL stuck, so I bought a generic 'Dremel' tool. I used one of the sanding cylinders and ran it through the hole in the caliper that the slide rides in. Do this until it is shiny; mine was rusted and pitted. Remove the pitting so the walls are nice and smooth.

Next, I used anti-seize; I coated the hole in the caliper with it (more for rust prevention...)and replaced the boot. Then, I ran some more anti-seize inside the boot, and a little on the pin/slide and reassembled. Worked pretty well, all in all!

I still had to replace the left-side caliper because the piston was seized, but I had the same problem on the right side and it works like new.

Good luck!

God knows I wacked on it (with a hammer).

I am going to try a hand-held grinder on the pin and a wire brush for the pin hole. But where do I get caliper boots? Did you go to a dealer for parts or aftermarket?

I see you mentioned I think caliper for $39, here's what I found:

I called a couple of local auto parts places, and one has boots for $11 and another has boots and pins for $19.

I think the core charges I read wrong last time. They're probably cores after the retail price, so add another $60 or $80 by not returning the core. It looks like after core around $50-55 for caliper replacement locally.

Mark

Bad move! I did the same and peened the damn thing over! Luckily, I made that mistake on the one that had the stuck piston, so I had to buy a new caliper anyway...

Go easily with a grinder! I just did mine with Emery cloth and it worked great! As far as the boot, I was able to remove mine in one piece, very slowly and very gently...

Ok, I went to the parts store after ordering boots/pins for the right front. What they ordered was a complete caliper rebuild kit. The other store said they could get just boots, but it will take a week, and so I'm going with that.

I got the pin out and sanded it a bit, and it slides pretty good. I have some caliper grease and some anti-sieze, and I figure I'll just use some fo the grease for now before the new boot comes in. The old boot got torn up pretty good getting the pin out :-)

I got the prices wrong, yah, the extra core charge adds to the total if there is no core. I'm looking at ~ $55 for a new caliper, I think. I'm going to try just a boot, they say they have boots for $11.

Got the pin out the same way. It's got a few teeth marks on it, but I think it'll work for awhile.

Mark

Actually, if the boot costs $11, $55 for the whole caliper is a bargain!

But youy really only need the caliper if the puck (the piston that actually presses on the pads) is stuck and does not push back into the caliper fairly easily...

Should be OK.