Repeated Brake and Caliper Issues

We have a 2003 Chevy Malibu (not my car) and I have never ending brake issues. I've had an average of about a front caliper a year fail/freeze on this car (rear drums!). It is driven maybe 3-4k miles/year and is outside in the winter. I typically have the calipers rebuilt by a shop which supplies local parts stores and dealerships. Just over a year ago they sold me two "remanufactured" calipers which they obtained from an Ausi company, rather than selling one of their own rebuilds. One developed a leak this week. Calipers constantly freeze on this car. If it's not a caliper, it's the pins sticking, etc. I've replaced pins, rotors, springs, lubricated pins/pads frequently, etc. No matter what I seem to do, the pads almost always drag on this car. I can fix the problem and it will reoccur a couple of months later. I've even paid someone else to do the front brake and had the same results.

Any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong, or what else I could be doing?

Have you replaced the flexible lines?

Those can deteriorate and not allow pressure to fully release. That will cause the brakes to drag, leading to other problems.

In reply to jstand:

I think the line issue is mostly caused by the little metal brackets that wrap around them. That was the case of my neon. Did not figure it out on the first one and replacwd the line. But when the caliper on the other side started doing the inconsistent drag bit I figured it out. Cut the bracket off the line drilled a hole in the part of the bracket that was attached to the car and really attached with a zip ty. When the rear started to do it I used a big minus head to open the line part of the bracket up a tad and bingo fixed again.

Steve.

I'd bet on the flexible lines also.

Thanks for the interesting feedback. I'll see how that works!