So the 2012 5 is my wife's car for carting around 3 little kids. Had an issue 6-8 months ago where the front driver brake squeaked/squealed a little bit, and then it got worse and then turned into grinding which I immediately took it in. Mechanic said the caliper is possibly bent a little bit. I don't know how, car has never been in an accident, but since an OEM one was over $200, he tried to fix it and was confident he did. Because of the grinding, we replaced the rotor and pads.

Fast forward a couple months the squeling came back, and now we are grinding the rotor again, I even heard slight grinding at very low parking lot speeds without the brakes applied just this morning. Wife didn't tell me about the squealing coming back so I could fix things before we blew another rotor as I don't drive in that car much. I am about ready to buy a caliper, rotor, and pads and do the whole job myself.

Is it likely the caliper is bent/bad causing this continued issue or what appears to be uneven wear on the pads which causes them to go early and grind into the rotor?

Are aftermarket calipers reliable? I have seen $60-$80 for semi-loaded calipers vs. the unloaded $200+ OEM calipers.

I've also looked on ebay for used OEM part number BPYK3371XC and found some with 40k-75k miles for $40 or so. I'd need some hardware but it seems like a decent deal.

Any direction/advice would be very appreciated.

 

Calipers do not "get bent", wheel, the carrier and bracket would fail long before the caliper does.

Can you post a picture of what the rotor and pads look like? That will tell a lot about what the problem is. Without that, any guess here would be just that.

What is a "semi-loaded" caliper?

 

From my understanding, semi-unloaded means it comes with caliper and some hardware but no pads.

I will try and get some pics, maybe tonight.

 

I hope you changed them both. The caliper that is eating brakes is the one working. The other one is just sitting there doing nothing. Common concern, the pads "stick" in the caliper bracket due to rust or other issues, and force the other side to do all the work.