I am having some issues with the brakes on my Ram. I first noticed that it did not feel or sound right so I lifted the front end and spun the wheels. They did not spin too freely and made a rubbing sound. The pads on the passenger side were fine. The drivers side were shot especially the inboard one. Drivers side rim was also black with brake dust but passenger side was not. I changed the pads and lubed all the slides. Put it all back together but the wheels still did not spin too freely and still made a rubbing sound. Took it for a test drive seemed to work ok, but when I got home the from rims were really hot. Is this normal? Looked at the rear brakes too they are discs. The rims were cold and the rotors are a little rusty on the surface where the pads are supposed to rub, so I guess they are not doing anything back there. I plan on taking the rear brakes apart this weekend and getting the rotors resurfaced. Any ideas what could be causing these issues?

Thanks

 

If the hubs are worn they will make a grinding noise when spun. Jack up the front end and try to move the tire side to side. If there is movement, the hub is bad.

 

check your wheel bearings..

 

I jacked up the front end and checked the hubs/bearings. There is no movement side to side or top to bottom with the wheels, and it is not a grinding sound but a rubbing sound.

The wheels themselves hardly spin at all now sounds like the pads are in contact all the time and I can hear them rubbing when I try to spin the wheels. Both driver and passenger side are the same. Is it possible for both calipers to go bad at the same time or could it be something else?

The truck has 155K miles on it.

 

Does it make the noise when you spin the wheel without brake pads installed.
if not then it has to be the calipers . unless brakes were installed wrong.

 

There could be a few things happening here...

1) Your Caliper has seized up and is not retracting when you let up off the brake.

2) Your Rotor is severely warped on that side and is dragging

3) You have a bad wheel bearing that is causing the rotor to make contact with the brake pad. Basically the rotor will start to angle outwards or inwards depending on load/steering input because the wheel bearing is allowing the hub to move laterally as well as rotationally. If that is happening then your brake pedal will likely go to the floor until you let the pedal go and press it again. This happens b/x the contact of the rotor with the pad will push the caliper piston inwards and then when you step on the brake your caliper will have to "straighten" the rotor and hub out before allowing the brake to engage, which is why your pedal will travel to the floor with ease until you let go and step on the brake again.

4) The little clip that you install between the brake pads is worn out and is not separating the brake pads from the rotor when you let off the brake, causing them to drag.

I am more inclined to believe that #1 is the problem if the rear brakes aren't engaging at all or are very weak.

You should have that caliper checked, as well as have your brake fluid changed ASAP.

You can check it yourself by pulling the caliper off and have a friend step on the brake pedal, if the caliper piston does not come out very easily then you might have a seized up caliper. It's easier to spot this if you have access to a caliper piston press (or you can use a large C-Clamp) and you can push the pistons in all the way and then have your friend step on the brake and see what happens. Also, if you aren't able to get the piston all the way in then it might be seized up.

The last thing you want is that caliper seizing up even more and preventing that wheel from spinning at all, as that might cause you to lose control of your truck at a higher speed.

 

Izero, thanks for the info. Hopefully I will have some time this weekend to check into it more.

The rotors should be fine they are slotted and drilled and it brakes smoothly no pulsating or vibrating.

Yes the rear brakes seem to just be going along for a ride and are not doing much at all.

I did not replace the clips, I cleaned up the old ones and they looked fine then I lubed them real well before reinstalling the pads. I've never changed the clips while doing brakes on other vehicles that I've owned (GM and Toyota) and never had drag issues.

I did fully compress the calipers with a large C clamp so I could get the new pads on and they did seem to go all the way. Maybe the lines are bad?

Rought I will remove the pads and see if the noise goes away, probably will not be until this weekend though.