I am pulling me hair out! Hopefully someone else has been thorugh this. I have a 98 sedan, no ABS. 103,000 miles.

I just bought it a few days ago, and didn't test drive it long enough. After 5-10 minutes of driving, the brakes start dragging, as if the calipers are not retracting. This problems worsens rather quickly, to the point that if I am going 30mph and pull my foot off the gas, the car will stop! When I jack the car up, the front wheels will be locked. Sometimes the brakes (front) smoke. There is always an overheated brake smell when this occurs.

My mechanic said the problem was corrosion due to the car living mostly up north, and recommended changing pads, rotors, hoses, calipers, master cylinder, and maybe metal brake lines. He wanted $800 for this, so I decided to do it myself.

First, I just changed pads, rotors and calipers. No change. Next hoses and master cylinder, no change. I guess the next step it to make new brake lines. I went to Autozone the first time and asked for all the pasrts to change everything. They convinced me to go step by step. I guess one fear I have is that it was the master cylinder all along, and that even though I have now changed it, the brakes got so hot from the previous tests, that the calipers are now bad again. Is it likely that this is it, or that the lines are bad or is there something else that could be wrong. FWIW, there was a good bit of corrosion on everything I removed, except master cylinder.

Thanks, Dave

 

Did you relube the slide pins ???

 

Yeah, I put a thin coat of brake lubricant on. If the brakes got real hot though, would that just burn off? I just looked at the rt. caliper and the dust seal is badly damaged. It's a day old, probably has 20 miles on it, tops. There are holes, and it is brittle and flaky.

 

Still confused...

I excahnged the pads and calipers, and within 3 miles they were smoking again!

What else could be causing the brakes to stick?

 

New or reman calipers ???

 

reman.

 

If I suspect a caliper sticking I normally pull the caliper and put a C clamp about 1/4" away from the piston then have someone pump the brakes and watch the piston come out ... then release the brake and watch that it releases and moves back away from the C clamp...
If you detect no movement then use the C clamp to see if the piston is REALLY stuck ...
I'm assuming the brakes are bleed properly ect

 

I will try that in a few minutes, after things cool down!

 

I removed the caliper and put a piece of 3/4 inch plywood between the pads. When my assistant pressed the brakes, the piston came out just fine. WHen brakes were released, it retracted some. The wood slid pretty freely. Now sure how far I should expect the piston to retract.

I guess either it isn't retracting far enough now, or id doesn't retract enough when the brakes are hot. These calipers have 3 miles on them.

What would cause the piston not to retract enough when hot?

 

Do the pads slide freely in the holders ??? I'd clean the heck out of everything spray everything down with brake cleaner ...soak it down then wipe everything down , relubricate the slides and the pins and the pad holders ... I had another thought , some dodges use different length slider pins did you notice if yours are different lengths ???(possibly you reversed them ) that can cause troubles too