learned something today (not Mustang related)

[1 old racer]

I am a 67 year old 3rd gen track whore. I have been working on cars my whole life. Well with that said my 2016 Volkswagen cc developed a groan in my front brakes. The rotors and pads were new-ish and after inspection of the rotors for creaks and warpage (they are crossed drilled) didn't find anything wrong with them. But the pads had some glazed spots across the surface. So I sanded them down and reinstalled them. After just a few mile the groan came back. So I installed some new pads and new rotors. To my surprise the groan came back. So off came the wheels and calipers. I took a close look at the calipers and noticed that one of the guide pins on the upper right side didn't have any friction on it when I removed it. So I checked out the rest of the pins and they had what I would call proper friction. All pins were well lubed. Everything else on the calipers looked perfect. a set of rebuilt calipers are pretty cheap on a VW so I went ahead and bought two of them but only installed the right one. Put everything back together and no more groan. Don't worry I replaced the left side after a few days of driving the car around to see if the groan would come back.
In all my years I have never had or even heard of a caliper failing that way. But now I know and for those that have the single piston caliper that use guide pins, the pin guides seals can wear out . And when they do the caliper is allowed to move in a way that will cause uneven wear and noise (low sounding groan).

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