So this weekend I changed the rotors and pads on my 02 EX sedan. I noticed when I took the old pads off that the driver side caliper seemed to be more engaged than the right. Didn't think much about it at the time, then went for a test run and bedded the breaks with a few 60mph - 20 mph sudden stops and then drove it home. I noticed when I first get on the brake the car pulls to the left but not so much that it jerks the car off the road or anything. I also noticed when I pulled back into the drive way that there was smoke coming from the driver side brake.

My question is can one caliber engage more than the other. In the brake DIY there's this picture that says the bolts in red "hold the outside part of the caliper closer to the rotor." Does these bolts somehow determine the tightness of the brakes? Seems like this shouldn't be the case but didn't know if anyone can add some clarity. Thanks!

The caliper is probably seized from what I read there. Are they the original calipers?

Smoke is not good!

Sounds like a seized caliper.

Was there a problem with pulling to one side prior to your brake job?


2 strikes in one at bat.
Drivers brake is dragging hard enough to smoke? Bad. If you kept on driving with the dragging brake, it would probably boil the fluid and you'd have lost brake pedal.

Did you get the caliper installed with a twist in the brake hose? THAT would do it.
Yes it can, but NO it should not. They should apply with equal pressure (per axle).
They should also release equally too.

A kinked or twisted brake hose can allow high pressure to apply the brake when you hit the pedal, but not allow the brake to release under low pressure fluid return. Like a check valve. THAT would keep the brake applied.
Those attach to the sliding pins, they allow the caliper to "float" side to side as the pads and rotor move.

Sometimes the pins can be bent if the head is clocked to the wrong place, some of the calipers have a locating tab that will cause that head to bend and bind if you aren't careful.
Some calipers don't have this issue at all.

The other common issues with those pins are getting rusted, corroded, and the grease hardening in the bracket, causing the pins to bind and the caliper to not "float" with side to side movements.



If all else is good, then caliper must be bad.

first thing to do is to remove the slider pins and grease them.

Thanks for all the advice. I've done a few test stops since the weekend and it seems fine now. Maybe the pressure was just equaling back out since I took the cap off the brake reservoir. Now it breaks fine and in a straight line so I don't think the caliper is seized. I just thought it was odd that the driver side caliper seemed to stick out further when I pressed it back in with the c-clamp.

That's good to know about the slider pins. I was wondering how those bolts affected the breaks.

you can use an infrared thermometer to measure temperature of the disks right after driving the car; if one is much hotter then the other then the brakes are dragging