I'm having problems with the right front brake, Lots of rattle when braking. The unanimous opinion for this seems to be "warped rotor".
But I want do do some more investigating.
First I found that the caliper pins are different. (These are the long pins with rubber boots that the caliper body bolts to. I am getting these names from:
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/6...dedviewye9.jpg)
The lower pin has a rubber collar near the end. The upper one doesn't. It seems like the lower one is absolutely immobile. In fact, to get it out I had to do a lot of prying and pulling. It was greased well enough, just like the upper one that pulled right out. Is this normal?

 

I have been doing more investigating and thinking back about the history of this wheel. I know I changed the brake pads, maybe a year ago. (Don't hold me to this timeline, I'm just guessing). Also, I saw that the rubber boot on the caliper pin was torn so I bought a kit that included two new boots and two caliper pins. One had a collar and one didn't.
I installed the new boots and caliper pins and put the one with the collar in the lower position.
After, maybe 6 months I began to feel the rattle and pulsing when I applied the brakes. After a few weeks/months of it getting worse I decided to take a look. I discovered that the lower pin was essentially frozen. I forced it out, cleaned the pin and the receptacle hole, greased the pin and hole with "disk brake wheel bearing grease". Everything seemed to move freely so I called it "fixed".

Then after maybe 3 months I started to feel the pulsing again. I kept driving as it got worse and worse. It got to the point that I decided I had to try again. I opened it up and darn if the lower pin was frozen again. I cleaned and greased pin and hole but then I noticed that in the kit I had purchased, there was a second collar just lying there. I measured it's OD and it was 10mm. I measured the OD of the collar on the pin and it measured 10.5mm. I still had the original pin so I measured its collar OD. It was 9.98mm.
I'm guessing that I should have changed collars before using the new pin.
I decided to leapfrog the problem and go back to the original, 9.98mm pin.

I guess time will tell. But I think the problem will return and I'll be back here.

 

When different people get involved with installing replacement parts, we never know what was done.
Add to this , the wrong parts !

Your best bet is to provide your VIN to a dealership parts dept, tell them what parts you need and you should get the right parts the first time.

They know what parts you vehicle was built with and will provide the correct parts. If you purchased parts on line, how do you know you received the correct parts, ??

Whatever supposed savings might have been realized, are more than lost because now the job has to be done over again and nobody likes to do that.

 

Damn, I just typed a response and I tried to submit it said I was "missing a token", what ever that means and all my typing was lost.

Try again:

As for this case, I am the only person that has ever worked on this Tucson. I bought it new in 2007 and have maintained it ever since.

I believe the bolt kit I bought included parts for two different models. But there was no instructions. I didn't even notice the second collar. They are smaller then a coffee bean.

I plan to return to the parts store where I bought the parts and go over the process to see what I might have missed.

 

Some parts stores have no idea of what you might require and only go by what the book/screen in front of them says.

I believe you are on the right path by bringing the original parts with you to the store and get exactly the same parts and usually you are good to go.

If they can't come up with the exact same parts, you might need, a visit to a dealership parts dept.might be required.

 

I guess it is time to "report in".
I went to the parts store and used my dial caliper to measure my parts and compare to the factory parts. All were in range.
Then I put everything back together and started driving it. It was doing great, no shake or vibration when braking. Then after about 50 miles of city driving I could feel the rattle coming back. After 150 miles it shakes pretty hard when braking.
I decided to drive it until we get a cooler day. It is the 90's or more almost every day. No AC in the garage. I have fans but that doesn't hack it.
If we get a cool day and I am not busy I'll pull the wheel again. I am sure I will find that the lower pin is stuck again. I need to find out what is going on. As an old friend used to say, "Now comes the hard part. You have to think".

 

Well it has been 9 months. Over this period I have "repaired" the problem, maybe 3 or 4 times.
Each time, it is fine for maybe 30 miles of "city driving", i.e. lots of stops. Then the vibrations come back. But no where as bad as it used to be. Just some clicking as I come to a stop.
I finally decided to sell the Tucson. We had two cars but only one driver.
I sold it to a mechanic and totally described the problem. He said that happens to Toyotas also. He was fine with it.
So problem solved....not a useful solution but it is out of my hair.

Thanks,
Pete