Is my rear caliper broken?

I just opened up my rear calipers to clean out the accumulated gunk and brake dust and then reinstalled the old pads. (Rotors and Pads are only 3 months old).

The first one I did didn't exhibt anything abnormal - I just removed the bolt on one end and pivoted the piston housing up and away from the inner frame that hold the pads.

When I moved on to the other side, I did the same thing - only this time when I pivoted the piston housing up and away - it slid off of the bolt and separated away from the bracket holding the pads - effectively breaking into two distinct pieces. I've never had this happen before - I always thought that the pivot hinge bolt was just that - and prevented the two halfs from coming apart.

Should the two half's come apart as they did (and I just never experience it before) - or is something wrong?

Out of curosity - I put everything back together and drove the car for a bit. The rotor in question was warm to the touch - but the other 3 were finger burning hot. That leaves me to believe that the wheel with the separating caliper is not applying the same amount of braking pressure as the other 3 wheels are.

I'm also hearing a slight squeaking sound - almost like a wear indicator chirping (while driving and braking) - that I didn't have before. My sixth sense is visualizing the sound coming from the wheel in question...

I'll stop at a parts store tomorrow and have a look at a unit behind the counter - but thought I'd post here for your thoughts as well...

Thanks -

I'm not quite sure if I'm understanding what came apart. There's nothing holding the caliper to the bracket that holds the pads once you take out the one bolt. Usually you just rotate it up on that slide pin, but I've taken mine off a couple times to clean out the old grease and re-lube it.

It could be that it's not coming out as it should. I replaced a caliper for under $90 if I remember correctly after I boogered up the old one. I, uh, didn't so much twist mine back in doing my first brake job on my Aurora. I more like broke a Craftsman caliper retractor trying to shove it straight back in. Oops.

I don't think there is a problem - but I can't convince myself 100%.

As you stated, I removed the one bolt holding the caliper and then raised it up on the slide pin. I had always thought there was somesort of stop on the slide pin to keep the two unit together. This time, while I was sliding it up, I also pushed back too hard and the piston portion of the caliper slid completely off of the slide pin (I had expected it to stop at some point). I merely placed it back on the slide pin, returned the caliper to the installed position and reinserted the single mounting bolt.

The reason I became concerned is that I now hear a minor, but constant squeak, squeak, squeak - both while I drive and while I apply the brakes (similar to the low pad chirp). I wondered if the caliper was "misaligned" somehow when it came completely off the slide pin.

I'm sure I'm the cause of the squeaking - when I had everything apart, I cleaned the calipers and mounting brackets for all four wheels and then applied high temperature brake paint on the exposed surfaces. I also applied paint to the back plate of the 4 exposed brake pads which is visible through the wheels. Althought the braking seems perfect - I wonder if this chirping sound is because of the paint - maybe I need to apply some lube?

Sort of depends on the pad. I had some cheapo brake best pads from O-Reilly's before and had to lube the back of the pad pretty good to prevent squeaking. Now I'm using the expensive Wagner something or others that said they had an integrated shim and anti squeak stuff and not to lube them... I doubt it can hurt to add some sythetic grease to the back of the pad since you already painted them. They could be having some movement that's making the noise.

Oh, and I never did anything special to try and line stuff back up. I never noticed an excess of slop on that pivot by any means either.