S1 Owners, Check Your Rear Brake Calipers. (!)

[floody]

Just a heads up, I suggest anyone with an S1 should check their rear calipers for freedom of movement and the condition of the larger (top as fitted) sliding pin.

My partner broke one in her Dayz on Friday, and when we went to replace it and the pads (as the caliper had seized on an angle), the other one turned out to be broken also.

Both were old fractures as shown by darkened/discoloured metal and corrosion. For whatever reason the passenger side piston housing rotated up off the pads and the piston pushed almost all the way out with the result being a near total lack of brakes.

The only symptoms leading up to finding this were occasional brake squeak when moving at low speed, and a long pedal stroke in general. Both rear caliper slides had completely seized, and its my opinion the action of the piston is what broke the pins finally.

The drivers side pin was so seized as to need to be punched out in a hydraulic press.

The pins are available through Nissan ex-Melbourne and are approx $35 each, I would suggest purchasing a pair and replacing them.

Edited October 2, 2012 by floody

[zoomzoom]

Just did that recently. Its good advice for any car - the grease on the pins wont last forever, and the remainder that I wiped off the old pins was dark brown/black. I just re-coated the pins and holes with dow corning 111.

I hope you didnt put the new pins in dry. I would even be hesitant to use new pins without knowing whether the old pins caused damage inside the holes.

[floody]

New pins went in with goss drylube. Reamed the holes lightly to clean them up. The thing is when they seize, it will pivot at the neck of the pin until it fatigues and breaks, so I think its well worth checking, two on the same car suggest its not an isolated issue...Wreckers I tried for calipers were useless as theirs were seized also.

[Duncan]

great to hear you found it in time, and good advice

[66yostagea]

Same with mine. D/S caliper seized solid and one pad was metal to metal. Lucky only drove about 2ks. All good now.