Think I got a defective caliper

I replaced brake pads, rotors & calipers a week or so ago. A couple days in I started hearing a slight constant squeak. I thought it was coming from the driver's side, so I took it apart, cleaned the rotor, as well as the shims & applied a little bit of copper anti-seize to the back of them & the pins & reassembled, clip securely in place. Whelp, squeak was still there. So I asked someone to drive it whilst I walked along & we determined it was the passenger side. So, I did the same thing to that side. Squeak is still there. Now mind you I have not dealt with new calipers. I am used to wrestling a piston or two back into place. With this new one, I had to try to get a piston to re-seat. Am I correct in thinking this should not have been the case? & when I go to take it apart again, if it needs to be re-seated, chances are I have a defective caliper? That is question 1. Question 2 is if I do need a replacement & have now put 300 or so miles on the rotor & pads, do I try to get them replaced as well? Or have I not put enough miles on them yet to be concerned with that? I'd say 1/2 of the miles were city-ish braking....

 

Does the squeak go away if you step on the brake?

 

No

 

Something is either loose/not tighten or rubbing in my opinion. Hard to believe a caliper will squeak

Check your backing plate, might be rubbing against the rotor

 

This ^^ x2

 

What do you mean by reseating a piston, pushing it back? Did you have the bleeder open? If so, it should be easy with just a couple of screwdrivers prying.

Do the rotors and pads show even wear? If so, no need to replace them.

Make sure the caliper anti rattle clips are installed correctly.

 

K. Will check the plate & caliper bolts. Anything else that I may not have properly tightened? Askin' cuz it seems with all the parts involved that more than two bolts, well, three with the banjo, would be involved....

& I guess more what I was getting at with re-seating/pushing back a piston, is would this be "normal" or typical for a one week old caliper. In other words, am I learning here that the indicator of age/wear & tear, or in this case, a possible defect/problem is not whether or not the pistons stay out, but more so it's in the resistance to pushing them back in? I get the general idea of how a caliper works, however my very curious mind is now wondering why the pistons would not all be in the same position on a "healthy" caliper? I'll have to do some research, as I realize you're all just trying to help me stop the squeak.... Anyway, back to the caliper.... The fact that one of the pistons was not pushed back is what caused me to reach for this a possible squeak culprit, however if this is perfectly normal, no matter what the age of the caliper, then there that idea goes.

So the anti rattle clip - when I read "installed correctly", I started trying to think of ways they could be done incorrectly & the only thing I can think of would be having the bottom of the clip hooked over the top pin? If that's it, then I'm 99.9999% sure I'm good. The end of the clip that hooks over, is at the bottom, under is at the top.... Other than that, is there something else I may have missed?

Thank you....

 

^I don't quite understand what you wrote about one of the pistons not pushed back. Did you have the bleeder open when you pushed the pistons back? If open, all 4 pistons should push back easy. If closed, it's a crapshoot as you'd be dealing with internal leakage rates of the various valves inside the ABS pump unit; and pushing one piston may cause one of the other 3 to pop out, etc.

Was the caliper brand new or reman? If reman, was the reman company Toyota or a 3rd party like Cardone? Quality control with 3rd party reman can be bad.

Picture of anti-rattle clip install: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7SYZcjGAieA/maxresdefault.jpg

 

You should also apply whatever grease came with your pads to the anti-squeal shims (if you haven't already done so).

 

Is this a 4 piston caliper, 2 piston, 1 piston? Mine were 4 piston when i rebuilt mine, works good. The piston should retract enough to not rub, if it's multi-piston, they should all come out at the same time and re-tract the same amount, which is very little just enough to keep from rubbing, per se.
I've found the rubber brake line to break down internally which won't let the caliper retract but it should effect all of the pistons in that caliper, I'd think. Also I'd do away with the grease you put on the pins and use the silicon brake grease on the pins.
But to answer your question, I haven't seen a properly operating caliper having to have their piston reseated, hung up some where, fluid wise or dirt or the seal behind the piston is hung up. Take that sucker back

 

So every video & write up I viewed prior to doing this has the clip other end up....
Got this link from somewhere in the 1st gen stuff since I couldn't find a TW write-up
http://www.parksoffroad.com/tacomamods/frozenrotors/frozenrotors.htm
In fact the pic you posted looked very familiar & i realized it's from one of the vids I watched. That shot is from the beginning & when he replaces it later, he puts it in the opposite way....
https://youtu.be/7SYZcjGAieA
Not sayin' your incorrect, just , cuz I just got in from thinkin' maybe I had her all squared away &, did I say ? Haven't actually done a test drive yet....

 

here's what I do when changing the brakes. leave the old pads in and either use the caliper tool (if I have it on hand) to push the pistons in, or use a BFS (big f*#&ing screwdriver) and push again the old pads.

then, being more northern I use a wire brush or wire wheel to "clean" the area where the rotor passes through the caliper. these areas are known to collect brake dust and metal that can cause various noises



notice the tighter area of the Tacoma caliper vs the Tundra caliper in the pic.

also, I've had to take said screwdriver and a hammer and "chisel" out some of that stuck material to have a clean or more spacious area for the rotor

 

They sent moly, so I used some copper anti-seize instead.

 

So this happened? Push one side in and one pops out all the way, without coming out?

Due to the rust, it took some force to get that one to go back in. 2 c clamps to be exact, and opening the bleeder. In actuality it shouldve been replaced as it gave me an issue regarding pedal feel after getting it back together, but it seems to be operating smoothly now after pumping the pedal hundreds of times. Guess it was mildly seized up.
Edit: proper rattle clip setup.

 

Friend of mine did that & he ended up burning up the new pads & rotor. Then had to do another round of new pads & rotor plus a new caliper. Made me think twice about having another go around with my old caliper cuz I was tempted. & thanks for the clip edit....

 

I'll keep that in mind for the next pad change. I had to do new calipers. In addition to a frozen piston, the seals were shot with powdered rust all stuffed up inside of 'em, rings rusted & falling off....

 

I had the cap off the brake fluid & I don't have ABS, but still.... Reman. I did a lot of quick research thinking I was gonna have to order online & wait, but Advanced came up as a thumb's up by Taco owners, so I got the calipers & rotors from them....

& mine was not nearly as pushed out as that....

I am still getting the squeak. I had thought the backplate was an issue, so I made that all good & made sure the bolts were all nice & tight, took her for a spin &
After listening to all the wisdom here, I had eliminated the caliper as a potential culprit.... almost.... So because I was a numbnut & did not give the calipers a good once over, I have no idea how the pistons are supposed to sit on a brand new one. Any I have dealt with was just about getting them good enough, seals having seen better days, etc. Anywho, I have been looking at pics online, but the angle I want is just not appearing. So I wish I had taken a pic so I can post & you could say . & the smart thing to do would be to shut up & do that tomorrow.... Buuuutttt, I will try & ask without the pic. If I am looking straight at the caliper, my eyes level with either the left or the right, in other words I am level with one set of pistons, should I see the pistons or just rubber? From some of the pics I see it looks like the pistons should recess so they you can barely see them, if at all. That their resting position is parallel to the top of the seals. The ones in Blue92's pic look more recessed than mine. & yes, now I am talking about all of the pistons. One is out a pinch more, & I mean a pinch, but that's where this all started, what might be off enough to cause the noise?

& who knows, maybe the noise is indeed not caliper related, but if there's something wrong with the calipers that I'd'a otherwise missed, I'd call that a bonus!

 

So here are pics of caliper from the angles I was attempting to describe last night. It just seems to me that when I did pads on the old one that the pistons were more recessed. But again, this is a new one. Something I had not yet seen. The other caliper looks similar except there was a piston that looked a pinch more out. Didn't have that one apart today. Did the other (the driver's) cuz I jacked her up & spun each tire & heard a slight squeak from the driver's side & although I am convinced it is the passenger side that's the issue, well, I have been wrong many'a time....

& now I am noticing the squeak does not start the second leave the driveway. It warms up? I dunno. Oh, I know. I went 1/2 mile to a store last night, no squeak. On the way back, I started hearing it, but not when I pulled in the driveway. I am also leaning towards it's more prominent when taking a right.... I still hear it when going straight. Just seems taking rights sets it off???? Just take lefts you say?

 

Can you describe in detail how you installed the rotos before you installed the calipers? I'm thinking the rotors are grinding the calipers a bit

This is what I did when I performed a tundra upgrade

- Rotor on
- Used lug nuts to center the rotor
- Used old brake pads and a small C clamp to push back both pistons on both sides
- Installed calipers
- Installed brake pads
- Installed brake pad hardware.

 

Yup. You got me on one thing I had already figured out I did wrong.... Centering the rotor....
- Rotor on
- One lug nut (now rectified)
- Installed brake pads
- Installed Hardware
- Installed caliper
The unit (caliper & pads) fit over the rotor, so I thought nothing of looking into anything, such as the pistons until the squeak showed up....

Would that (rotors grinding the calipers a bit) cause a squeaking kind'a noise?