I have a 94 XL with slightly over 300,000 miles. I am doing brakes all the way around, but am not sure about changing out the front calipers. The ones that are on it are several years old and have many thousands of miles of use. They are not sticking or leaking. Is there any compelling reason to change them? What determines when they should be replaced?

 

If they are sticking/leaking/causing odd pad wear or the rubber boot is in poor condition then replace them. Otherwise save your money

 

If it ain't broke.....

As long as it doesn't pull to one side or chew up pads quickly you should be fine. If you have to change one side you should always do both sides since 75% of your stopping comes from the front and you want it to brake evenly.

 

I agree with southernyankee generally, but on the other hand they are cheap. And a little insurance on your brakes goes a long way. That's why I did mine. Either way check your rubber lines and flush and bleed your fluid.

 

Yes believe me you don't want uneven wear on brakes. It can really screw you when you really need to step on the breaks. I just recently changed my pads and rotors because I had been driving on 0% pads for 3 months. HORRIBLE braking control... that's what happens when you are a college kid though... can't pay for sh*t.

 

I agree with most the comments. Unless there is an issue don'r change them, even given that it is a pretty easy job.

Having said that, a good thing to do is to flush through the break fluid, especially if the fluid in your system is dark. I do this buy doing an extended bleed on the passenger rear wheel until the fluid coming out is clear. Then I do the driver's rear, passenger front, and finally driver front.

Keeping the fluid clean helps stop crap from building up in the actuators allowing them to move freely. a couple liters of brake fluid is a lot cheaper than calipers, master cylinders, etc.

 

Bought a power bleeder a few years ago and it makes this job almost effortless. Don't know how i ever lived w/o it now that I'm used to using it.

 

X2

 

Retraction (backing off) of the caliper when brakes are released, is brought about by the "liveliness" of the square "O-rings" used to seal the pistons. Moving the piston towards the rotor (thereby "squeezing" it with the pads), deforms the piston seals into an "unsquare" shape; release of brake pressure relies on those seals PUSHING the piston back, to allow pads to CLEAR the rotor. There are NO retraction springs, as on drum brakes with shoes. If the seals are very old, they lose a lot of their "resilience", and gradually retract the pistons less and less effectively, until eventually not at all, at which time SOME drag of the brakes is constant.

That wastes fuel, heats everything up unnecessarily, and speaks VERY POSITIVELY for either replacing the piston seals (rarely done), or replacing the calipers, which is a most wise high-mileage brakes decision. imp

 

My last set from the local parts house lasted about 6 months before 1 caliper froze up so instead of returning them and reinstalling the same junk I found some OEM calipers off of a JY donor and rebuilt them myself with a good rebuild kit. Much better pedal feel and no issues to date. changing the fluid every other year should give the seals a much longer life. It costs about $5.00 to do a fluid flush and with a power bleeder it literally takes about a half hour.