I have a 98 Durango. For the last year every time I take it on long drives I smell hot brakes. Sometimes it's the driver side sometime the passenger side. I replaced both calipers, rubber lines and steel lines. Bled the brakes no air in the lines and it's still doing it. Any ideas on what's causing the problem?

 

Have you checked that the caliper is able to move on the slide pins?

 

I replaced the slide pins when I replaced the calipers. Cause I thought they may be the problem. I even ground the guide rails on the hubs cause they were getting grooves worn in them from the brake pads. They are smooth and it's still doing it.

 

did you grease the contact points for the pads? this is a necessary step, i would occasionally have to regrease them when i had the wheels off, annoying but not a big deal.

 

I greased the whole rail not a lot but enough I thought. I did notice this morning there are slight indents on the guide rails. I thought I ground them out but I didn't get them all the way out. I'm thinking it has to be something holding the brakes. The Durango has sat for a couple days so if it was something in the fluid it would release after a while. Is that right or no?

 

a blockage in the fluid COULD release slowly over time, but if its a complete blockage it wont, when mine did this it was the brake hoses had collapsed internally and were not allowing the brake cylinders to retract fully as rapidly as they should (actually was taking overnight to fully release)

 

Ok here is where I'm at. Yesterday I took the caliper off I found 2 grooves in the rail from the contact points on the pads. I ground it smooth and put it back together. Drove it to work last night. Drivers side rim was warm passenger was hot enough that you had to take your hand away after a little bit. Got back this morning same thing. Checked to see if there was pressure in the line, no pressure. Lifted then front end both wheels free spun the same. But I did notice a squeak coming from the wheel bearing. Could a bad bearing be causing the rim to heat up and I'm thinking its the brakes?

 

the bearing would have to be realllyyyyy bad to generate that kind of friction, you would notice a pull in the steering wheel from one of them going bad long before it reached the point of heating up the rim, the rims WILL get warm when you brake no matter what (even when they are working correctly) and the two sides wont always brake evenly, im not sure why there is such a seemingly significant difference on yours.

how are the pads wearing? are they even? right to left? the two on the left? or the two on the right? im just looking for information here.

 

Actually all 4 front pads look like they are wearing evenly. Both inside and outside look the same and drivers side and passenger side look the same.

 

ok my next thing would be to get my hands on an infrared thermometer and see what the actual temperatures are at the rotors bc from all visual checks it looks like they are functioning correctly.