Front Brakes Sticking Badly

here's the deal-front brakes sticking on badly...like take foot off gas and stop..no coasting. thought it might be contaminated fluid boiling or something(happens after hard long stops)fluid was dark green looking... flushed twice to get all old gunky fluid out and bled...pedal felt firm/brakes strong. 3 days later same thing....brakes stuck on ,smelly, now pedal feels more mushy i think. thing is, if i wait a day they release and feel fine..??? the only other related thing i've done lately is change pads and rotors a couple weeks ago.

from searching the best i can get is maybe a sticky caliper...so replace the calipers. but i thought i'd throw this out to see if it sounded like anything else to anyone. someone mentioned collapsed lines and that's a possibility but they are RE braided steel so i would think them to be decent quality. booster? anything else? :dunno:

Thanks for any help - loop

I'm having a similar problem, I think it is the calipers. They tend to stick and cause my mileage to go down. Mine is a 99 XJ, so I shouldn't be having this problem.

with how hard they stick i'd would think i get about 2miles per gallon. i mean think trying to push on the gas with one foot and the other mashed on the brakes....that's what i feels like. engine temps going towards the red...smell of scorching brakes. much worse than dragging or not releasing fully. sucks being that it's my daily driver :banghead:

coderedxj said:

I'm having a similar problem, I think it is the calipers. They tend to stick and cause my mileage to go down. Mine is a 99 XJ, so I shouldn't be having this problem.

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Having the same issue on my 99 as well. There is a sweet spot they will start squeeling at till they get good and warm. And some times, mainly after driving around town, on warm days, I'll be crusin down the road and they will be a squeelin the whole way. Do a decent stomp on them real quick, and they shut up. Only to start again the next time you use them. I'm seriously thinking this is contributing to my wide gas milage readings.

Could be a bad brake hose too. When they go bad they tend not to let fluid return.

Bump up for the night crew :helpme: :bawl:

What year? (and how many miles since the last time the brake fluid was completely flushed and replaced?)

I ask because I am betting you have trashed calipers from years of having the same old brake fluid sitting against them, resulting in rust, etc.

93'...last flushed them about two years ago. i take it that calipers that are 12 years old and have never been rebuilt(as far as i know 2nd owner) are pushing it? :dunce: i just don't get how they seem fine all of a sudden after sitting for a while....

In my opinion, based on the fact you said the vehicle sat for a while, I would replace both front calipers with rebuilts. I am betting it will fix your problem.

Rebuilding the calipers will help - get a rebuild kit since it's loads cheaper than a new set of calipers. The Crown kits come with seals and new bakelite pistons, if that's not a contradiction in terms... (Bakelite?! :laugh2: ) You will need to run around the inside of the piston housing in the caliper with really fine grade wetordry to get rid of any snagging points - if you're doing it yourself, take your time.

Getting the old pistons out should be OK - all you need to do is carefully push them out using a screwdriver or compressed air through the hose connector hole (here my terminology lets me down again).

The other thing to check is that quite often the pads will make a little groove for themselves on the caliper "rail", stopping them from sliding freely back and forth on braking/ releasing. It's not a tricky job for a mechanic to build the surface back up using a welder and a file. Once you've done that you should have a nice refurbished set of calipers that'll last another 12 years!

If you're not confident, a competent mechanic shouldn't spend more than a couple of hours doing this procedure.