Last week after a 15-minute drive I noticed the smell of "brakes" in my driveway. I had a look and noticed small amounts of smoke coming from the front passenger brake area and felt the wheel; it was hot. I waited for things to cool, jacked up the car and found the wheel in question took more force to turn than the other (maybe 7-10 lbs of force as measured at the tread).

Since the issue is only on one wheel I opted to buy a new caliper and hose which I installed today. After bleeding the brakes (fluid was clean in the system and was also clean in the old caliper), and before driving I tested things while on jack stands and found the same tough resistance to turning on the passenger front wheel. I drove for a bit, stood on the brakes; no pulling and the skid marks were the same length. There was no smoke when I got home but after a while that wheel did heat up more than the other.

Any idea what else could be causing this? The pads and rotors were replaced less than 10K miles ago and the truck has 87K miles on it.

Thanks for the help.

 

The only thing I can think of is maybe somehow the dragging caliper caused a problem with the hub/bearing on that wheel. Maybe take the wheel off again and check for play in the hub and be sure the caliper piston is releasing like it should. It's also possible you got a bad replacement caliper.

Jimmy

 

did you replace the pads on both sides of the front end or just the one side? but you might also have a bent brake line that will cause it to hold pressure in that caliper longer.

 

I did not replace the pads with the new caliper yesterday as they are basically new.

I forgot to mention that there are groves worn into the rail on the spindle where the pads ride. I wonder if that can be enough to keep the brake from releasing? Also, can I get my pads shaved down or buy thin ones so that they contact he spindle in a different position?

 

Grooves on the spindle? pics?

And please dont shave your brake pads down, or do anything to modify them so they work the way it is. there is something wrong with it and it should be fixed, especially having to do with the braking system, that is pretty important

 

I can't get pics right now but I can provide a poorly made drawing (please see attached). the groves are worn into the rail where the pads slide as they move in and out when compressed by the caliper. They look as if the slide in and out in the same spot and don't wear down moving them to a new spot.

Hope the drawing helps.
wheel.jpg

 

oh ok the caliper goes around that. you might want to get a disk brake rebuild kit. it will come with new slides and springs and all the goodies for the front brakes other than pads. there should be little silver tabs over those worn areas? the rebuild kit will have new ones of those. you might also look into a new one of those brake pad housings.

 

take your caliper back off, run some emery cloth over the contact surface where the ears of the pad meet, put some anti sieze compound on there, and see what happens. cheap fix before you go crazy trying out different things.

personally id look into replacing your front brakes, both sides. safety reasons

 

tamcnally, there are no silver tabs on that rail, only the piece of metal (BTW, my manual calls this the steering knuckle and not the spindle). Also, I have changes all the hardware on the calipers, the only thing to change is the guide pins and bushings and the clip that hold the outer pad in place.

f0x672, I did file it a bit mainly to get the crud and corrosion off the "high areas". I will try and polish it up and see what happens.

Any other thoughts?

 

OK, so I have driven the car a few times since the new caliper and the new lower brake line and so far no problems. However I need to bleed the brake again as the right one is soft.

Is there a chance that since the brake is not bled that the residual pressure being placed on that caliper is now artificially low? Any chance that there will always be a small differential pressure between the two sides and that maybe my master cylinder is not releasing all the way? Any way to check?

Thanks,