rowekmr

Hello
Notice my wife's brake pedal had a lot of travel to stop the car. Removed the front wheels and saw decent pad material left but lip on the both rotors facing out and the inside had grooves in the rotor and pads. I replaced both rotors and pads (from Advance Auto dealership was closed). I noticed in both front calipers one of the pins was stuck. The other one came out with a little effort but the stuck ones took a lot of turning, pulling and some WD40 to finally get them out. Both of the stuck ones had a rubber bushing or ring at the tip with one so old it fell off. Both stuck ones has a layer of corrosion and dried lubricant on. I cleaned them off the best I could with brake cleaner, rag and wire brush and applied brake lubricant on them and installed all 4 caliper sliding pins. The good pins moved fine but the prior bad ones moved with more effort.

The car still has a lot of pedal travel should I move on to bleeding the system now?

Should I replace the pins only or the whole caliper? The pistons had rust on them and took some effort with the C clamp to reset them in the bore. I live in the rust belt so didn't know if it all should be replaced. If so is parts store rebuilt/reman calipers decent or go Lexus/Toyota?

BDSL

I have reman calipers with no issue.

808mcv20l

sounds like the brake fluid was never changed. The corrosion becomes a problem when the fluid was never changed and water gets in the system.

I would say you have 2 options:
1) rebuild the calipers yourself (centric kit is pretty cheap), get new seals and if the pistons are salvageable you can scrub off the light rust with a green dish scrubber pad and some carb cleaner.
2) buy reman calipers, I would again recommend centrics, I've used them in my last car and can vouch for the quality, my only gripe is they don't use OEM bolts.

Do a complete brake fluid flush, in fact flush it 2-3 times, try your best not to let any air back in.

speedkar9

Start with a full brake fluid flush. Rusty or sticky calipers don't directly lead to a soft pedal.

pauloil

remember to check pedal firmness with the car off. should pump up firm. my friend and I bled the same car the old way, one guy pumping the pedal up, the other at the bleeder. worked fine

Oro

Another point is to lube those pins correctly.

Use "Sil-Glyde." It is cheap at NAPA and won't degrade from heat as easily as chassis grease. Also, get a cap for that one to keep water out. Replacement pin kits are very cheap at RockAuto when ordering parts, like $2 or $3 per wheel.

A flush and cleaned/greased/capped pins would be a good place to start before evaluating the need for caliper work.