That seized caliper bolt on I-35 near Waco just wrecked my whole Saturday

Pulled into a rest stop outside Waco last weekend because I heard a weird grinding that got worse with every mile. Jacked up the rear passenger side and found the caliper bracket bolt frozen solid, like someone had welded it in with rust and old brake fluid. I had my tools in the truck, but the breaker bar just rounded the head off clean after about ten minutes of fighting it. Ended up calling a buddy who runs a mobile mechanic service, and he drove 40 minutes out with a torch and an extractor set. Took him maybe 15 minutes to heat it up and spin it out, and he charged me $80 cash, which I honestly thought was fair given the situation. The annoying part is I did a brake job on that same axle about 8 months ago and never thought to hit the bolts with anti-seize. Has anyone else had a caliper bolt seize that fast, or did I just get unlucky with the salty roads around here?

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spencerm4618d ago

Man I felt this one in my soul, literally the same thing happened to me on my old F-150 but mine seized so bad the bolt snapped in half and I had to drill it out with a cheap harbor freight bit while lying on gravel in the rain. My dumb self also skipped the anti-seize on that brake job, thought I was saving time but really I was just signing up for a future headache. $80 is a steal though, my buddy charged me a six pack and a pizza and we still ended up cussing at it for two hours. Salty roads absolutely do that, that rust gets in there fast and then it just becomes a permanent part of the caliper. I keep a little can of anti-seize in the glovebox now like it's a lucky charm, learned that lesson the hard way.