Corrosion of front brake pistons

[vitz]

Accidentally my mechanic observed that front wheels are over heated in my EC. Apparently, I changed brake oil one or two months ago.. (Of course it was quite delayed change) Suspicion was on stuck brakes.....thus we started our inspections step by step....

Caliper pins are loose and working fine, no issues of guiding paths of brakes, caliper piston dust boots are also okay to the outside.....

Then the suspicion was on the caliper piston or caliper.....

So we pushed out the piston......

Oh...no....the dust boot has been torn very inside which was not apperent to out side

See the condition of the piston 

Its apparent that water entry from the torn boot has corroded the piston. luckily caliper bore was not damaged....It looks all has happended outside the inner o-ring of the cliper (you know what I meant)

Same story in the front wheel in the other side... Did not check rear wheels though..

The repair was quite costly.... fortunatly the piston of the Vezel and dust covers exactly matched the EC

Lessons learnt:

1. Check the heating up of weels especially at shorter distances.

2. When changing brake oil better to bleed it entirely by pushing out the piston.

3. I got no clue, how could I avoided this, as the damate to the boot was not clear to outside and only apparent when pushing out the piston out

 

[Hyaenidae]

1 hour ago, vitz said:

1. Check the heating up of weels especially at shorter distances.

 

 

Doesn't the Eclipse come with TPMS from the factory?

My $20 Chinese TPMS system monitors the temperature inside tyres, I think it would've triggered an overheating warning if something like this happened

[iRage]

8 hours ago, Hyaenidae said:

Doesn't the Eclipse come with TPMS from the factory?

Most manufacturer installed TPMSes do not give a temperature reading. Toyotas don't. However, when there is a temperature difference there will be a noticeable pressure change so the reading will be off. So if one is of the geeky-nerdy nature you could observe the pressure reading and see if anything abnormal is going on.

10 hours ago, vitz said:

I got no clue, how could I avoided this, as the damate to the boot was not clear to outside and only apparent when pushing out the piston out

Well...in many ways it is unavoidable.

But what one can do is on a regular basis give the entire car a good inspection which includes brake cleaning, etc...

Over here general services include a visual inspection of all these components (and cleaned/fixed) as needed. The annual mandatory inspection and shaken inspection packages come with things like brake cleaning, fluid changes, belt checks, etc... So the chances of noticing these things before it actually causes havoc is quite high. e.g. the AE101 Corolla wagon had its inspection done a few weeks ago. Prior to the inspection the car was asked over for a pre-inspection to see if it needed any parts. Some dampness was detected behind the timing belt as they were inspection. One of the cam shaft oil seals was slightly showing ae causing a very slight seep. It and then got replaced during the shaken inspection. In most other places on the planet this would not have been noticed until the cam seals started seriously leaking and the oil was dripping out of the timing belt/chain cover.

So...create your own inspection framework and get it done at frequencies that you can afford (time wise and financially). Will it completely avoid things like this ? No...but you have a good chance of avoiding a lot of other issues and can have the comfort of knowing your car is in good health and can get you from A to B a thousand times.

[vitz]

10 hours ago, Hyaenidae said:

Doesn't the Eclipse come with TPMS from the factory?

My $20 Chinese TPMS system monitors the temperature inside tyres, I think it would've triggered an overheating warning if something like this happened

No, the version I got didnt come with the TPMS. It looks a good idea to purchase one

[vitz]

2 hours ago, iRage said:

Most manufacturer installed TPMSes do not give a temperature reading. Toyotas don't. However, when there is a temperature difference there will be a noticeable pressure change so the reading will be off. So if one is of the geeky-nerdy nature you could observe the pressure reading and see if anything abnormal is going on.

Well...in many ways it is unavoidable.

But what one can do is on a regular basis give the entire car a good inspection which includes brake cleaning, etc...

Over here general services include a visual inspection of all these components (and cleaned/fixed) as needed. The annual mandatory inspection and shaken inspection packages come with things like brake cleaning, fluid changes, belt checks, etc... So the chances of noticing these things before it actually causes havoc is quite high. e.g. the AE101 Corolla wagon had its inspection done a few weeks ago. Prior to the inspection the car was asked over for a pre-inspection to see if it needed any parts. Some dampness was detected behind the timing belt as they were inspection. One of the cam shaft oil seals was slightly showing ae causing a very slight seep. It and then got replaced during the shaken inspection. In most other places on the planet this would not have been noticed until the cam seals started seriously leaking and the oil was dripping out of the timing belt/chain cover.

So...create your own inspection framework and get it done at frequencies that you can afford (time wise and financially). Will it completely avoid things like this ? No...but you have a good chance of avoiding a lot of other issues and can have the comfort of knowing your car is in good health and can get you from A to B a thousand times.

Thanks!!!

Here in Sri Lanka I am not sure such a place give a good attention, even in general service. I wrote what I faced at the agent when needing a brake oil change!!!! Even they identified rack end failure in my EC as a failed rack needing the replacement of the entire rack!!!

Our sheer interest on vehicles will assure the vehicle is in good order. 

As you said, its good to have a good inspection schedule by ourselves to keep the vehicle in order. Even, we better prepare such in this forum.... Surely, inspection of brake pistons annually will be a one action!!!

[Hyaenidae]

3 hours ago, vitz said:

No, the version I got didnt come with the TPMS. It looks a good idea to purchase one

Yep totally worth the investment

 

[walkernet]

I had a similar issue with my Corolla 141, front passenger side brake got stuck while traveling from Kandy to Colombo, and the brakes became extremely hot which was not observed before. Managed to travel to Colombo somehow and went to the agent to do an inspection, and after checking informed that no issues with the brake systems. The issue came back after a few days of city driving and went to a known garage when checked the piston was corroded due to the damaged boot. They managed to fix it and no issues till now for more than 1k KMs. Wonder what exactly the agents checked during their inspeaction 😏