hot brakes, really hot on d side.

2 months ago i did a complete overhaul of the brakes.

new rotors, new drums, new pads all around (ceramic), all auto zone. used brake grease on all applicable parts. hit the front pads with the red goo.

flushed brakes with 2 quarts fluid. bleed brakes starting with rr,lr,rf,lf.

every thing was fine until this week.

made a trip to mt hood to go riding. fine on the way up, no issues whatsoever.

on the way down, did a few hard brake checks, to see how the ice/snow was on the road, about 3x's in various places within the first 3 minutes of driving after letting her warm up for a 10 minutes, (until the heater blew hot air).

hardly used the brakes at all, mostly engine braked all the way down the hill, literally, maybe braked 3 times all the way down for about 20 miles. then hit some minor traffic and used the brakes to stop at a store for dinner.

back on the road, seemed that the brakes felt mushy and shuddering. pulled to the right. used brakes as little as possible and stayed in the slow lane, got home and i could smell the brakes. i checked the passenger side and they were hot, i could feel the heat coming off of them, and it was 32 degrees or colder, most of the way into town and maybe 50 tops in town. the drivers side was virtually on fire, i could feel the rims on that side and could feel the heat radiating off of the rotor, barely touched the rotor and scorched the $h!+ out of my finger. (and i'm an ex-chef, with what people would call asbestos mitts for hands).

no brake light issues, so i took her for a short run on a low traffic road with very few stops, same issue, just not as hot.

today got out and took a look at the rotors, the drivers side rotor has discoloration and glazing on the outer rotor on the inner half of the rotor, closest to the axle. took a couple around the block drives and lightly checked the braking to see if it shuddered or pulled right like the day before, no issues. drove to the store, 1/2 mile away, didn't use the brakes more than 5 seconds. got out, both front rotors were hot, the d side more than the p side.

checked the fluid, clean clear, no bubbles, still topped off, no leaks, brakes lines are good, no cracks or noticable wear issues with rubber lines at wheel wells. brake fade issue seems to be stemming from front brakes that just won't release.

i am assuming at this point that it is a caliper issue and has nothing to do with the lines or the m/c, or any of the recently replaced parts. my only issue is that most caliper issues are associated with at least a slow leak, some visible sign that it is spilling fluid, in this case there is none.

it is possible that i did get air into the m/c although i doubt it, i did the job myself so i can't rule it out. i figure that i would have noticed by now if i had. i also had a hard accident recently with a freeway divider and high water. that was at least a couple weeks ago and nothing immediate. I made the same drive last week with no issues at all.

anyone out there have similar experience, i would appreciate it, before i start throwing more money at it. :nosmile:

I would say your drivers side caliper is sticking. I'm guessing it pulls left when you are off the brakes (driver brake dragging), you steer right to correct. When you hit the brakes, it pulls hard right? The driver cal is sticking which boils the brake fluid that side. Then when you hit the brakes, the passenger side does most of the work and the car pulls right.

Check that the caliper slides smoothly on the mount pins. Take em apart, if they're rust at all, change for new pins and rubber seals. Or just take the whole caliper to autozone as core for a rebuilt.

Good luck,
Jeremy

yeah, i leaning to that, but i just overhauled everything and there was no issue with it pulling to the left, just to the right when i touched the breaks at all, this was about one hour into driving, no pulling issues right now, i'm not going onto the freeway to recreate them, just seems weird as a caliper issue that there are no leaks or bubbles in my m'c. and this did not happen on the first trip, but the second and i had just given the jeep it's monthly once over before going this time.

i already priced them out at schuck's/autozone. just don't want to throw money at the problem if i'm not sure. only parts i have not replaced are the lines, m/c and calipers.

only parts i have not replaced are the lines, m/c and calipers.

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This problem could also be the flexible brake line running to the caliper. Even though they look OK on the outside, the inside will swell and won't release pressure from the caliper. Heat magnifies the problem; once a caliper starts dragging, heat is generated and conducts up to the flexible line and it closes up even more, making the dragging worse, etc.

It's definitely a sticking caliper and/or flexible line. I'd replace the caliper AND the line on the 'hot' side, just to be safe......

just replaced both calipers and pads... works like a charm.

still didn't figure out why they locked up, but it was both sides, i had to pry both sides off with a crowbar, usually my 10" C-clamp does the trick... strange to seize both calipers at the same time, but much worse on the d-side..... real pisser is that the pads had just broken in, gotta do it all over again, but it's nice to be able to coast again. Answers the ?? why i was getting 2-3 mpg less than normal... at least i didn't warp my rotors.

Just wondering if you have anti lock brakes.When you push the caliper piston back while changing pads,did you open the bleeders and let the fluid out or force the old fluid back into the system?This can cause your problem because of crud in the old calipers:doh:

the bleeders were open when i retracted the calipers the first time, so i know that wasn't the issue. no abs. oh well, new calipers now so it really doesn't matter. damn strange to have both calipers go out at the same time though.

Did you get the metal piston or composite piston calipers. The composite are the less expensive and many places don't tell you they are composite. I've had trouble with the piston seizing as you've described. Once I found out that I had composite, I spent the extra money for the metal and haven't had any further problems.

I found out about the composite issue when I had a caliper seize in KY, pulled it and took it in for a warranty replacement.