Caliper problems
u The owner of this 2002 Toyota Corolla had kept it garaged for most of its life and, although it was getting a bit old now, it was certainly kept in good condition. The owner was particularly happy when Toyota scrapped the Auris name so the hatchback reverted back to Corolla.
The Toyota was coming up for its MOT and the owner had asked me to check out the brakes before the test. She was concerned that the car tended to pull to one side when applying the brakes. Giving the Toyota a quick drive myself I confirmed it had a definite pull to the offside when braking.
Whipping the wheels off to check I found that the pads were quite low, so the first stage would be to fit new brake pads. While doing so I checked the slides; these were good, moving nice and freely.
When I came to push the pistons back into the calipers, I discovered the source of the problem. The piston on the nearside caliper was solid and the offside one wasn’t as smooth as it should be. The owner has every intention of keeping this Corolla on the road for a while yet, and so was quite happy for me to fit two new front calipers, restoring the braking back to normal.