Daily Archives: August 22, 2019

And It Was The Perfect Day For It, Too . . .

Although it rained heavily earlier this morning, it had cleared by the time I was up and about and caffeined. So after I got back from O’Reilly’s with the brake cleaner, I was outside and pulling off the driver side rear wheel by about 10.

Although I had pulled the passenger side wheel the other day to look at the rotor, I started on the other side today because it was opposite the sun, giving me a little shade. Then this afternoon I planned to switch over to the other side, again for the shade.

But as happens, my best-laid plans ‘gang aft a-gley.’

I knew something was up when I noticed that the rotor was in really good shape, and not worn down as the passenger side was.

Driver Side Rotor

This what the other rotor looked like.

Truck Rear Brake Rotor 2

And when I removed the caliper, and then the brake pads, I found the piston in the caliper was jammed and could not be moved, in or out.

At that point I was done for the day, so I put everything back together and headed inside to see about getting new calipers.

I’m surprised that I couldn’t feel any difference in the braking with one side working and the other side jammed, but since 60-80% of braking is on the front wheels I guess it was just masked. But I never felt any kind of pulling when I braked either.

And checking out Amazon for Rear Brake Calipers, I found something strange. On some vehicles the calipers are the same on both sides, but I have a different one on each side. The right side caliper was $43.51, but the left side one was $63.21. And this is the same model from the same manufacturer. This totaled $106.72.

And this was for remanufactured ones.

So I put in a call to O’Reilly’s to see what they had. And they had a set for $105.98. And these were new ones, too. So I told them to order me a set, and was told they would be in this afternoon.

However when I went to pick them up I was told that the price would be $149.98.

WTH?

But I cooled down when I was told that I would get back $22 each or $44 total when I bring back the old calipers to them. So that gives the $105.98 that I was quoted.

So now I’m pushing all this back to this Saturday, Sunday, or next Tuesday, I guess.


Thought for the Day: 

Remember, it’s only a murder if they find the body. Otherwise it’s just a missing person.

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