Brakes Burning, Smoking, Smelling, and Popping!

[JDT]

Ok so my brakes have always had a little squeak to them since I bought the car and I've been meaning to change them but today I noticed the car felt sluggish. I had to press the accelerator harder to make the car go anywhere. When I got home I smelled the burning brake on the front drivers side and it was making a popping sound like popcorn in a microwave. I figured it was a seized caliper, and I let it sit for about an hour and I went to go check the fluid level and it was just at max and wasn't black or anything. The brakes cooled down but the seized one was still a little warmer than the rest. I decided to take it for a spin around my block and the brakes seem fine again and the car rolls without any drag. It just feels like I have to press the brake pedal a little harder than usual but it's about the same as before. What could it be? A sticky caliper? I need to go take this car to get an inspection today and it's about a 4 mile drive I was wondering if it would be okay to do.

 

[Sebba]

I would remove and replace that caliper, inspect the others for failures, maybe change some seals, rebuild kit, what ever. Either that or just replace them if they look soon to follow. You may just need to lubricate stuff. Replace pads too.

Clean out the reservoir from crap, then run fresh brake fluid through the whole thing, bleed, etc.

After that your pedal feel should be sweet.

 

[nek]

I was just looking into this problem today. When I drive around, my front passenger side gets much hotter then the rest. And sometimes it makes a loud rubbing noise when hard turning. Also when I shut the engine off, I can hear a faint popping noise coming from the rotor. I remember when I was putting the calipers back on a while ago, it was a really tight fit to get the pads over the rotors. Im guessing I have the same issue as you and its a sticky caliper.

 

[Colt4G63 also]

I have seen two cars in the last month exhibiting these symptoms. Both turned out to have contaminated brake fluid. The seals in the master were swelled up, not allowing the fluid to return to the reservoir. When the fluid in the calipers got hot, the pressure would build.

Of course you need to check your caliper, the slider pins, check for the pads being stuck in the caliper bracket, and check the hose.

 

[turboglenn]

It's probably a sticking piston in the caliper, i've seen it morein GSX's than the GST's (probably because with the dual piston setup you have more chance of just one piston hanging up a little bit)

But if you're experiencing this you need to take care of it ASAP!! Befor eyou find yoursefl with boiled fluid and no way to stop at the next light.. believe me when fluid boils the pedal goes to the floor and there' no brakes what so ever!! just like some one cut the lines and it's a scary feeling.. Luckily on cars you get some feelings of warnign symptoms before you actually become helpless depending on the emergency braketo stop you alone.

if you're rotors are "popping" you've let this problem go way too far and are lucky it hasn't caused you to be in an accident...

You need to change your brake fluid out completely as well, take the calipers off and buy an 8 dollar rebuild kit for each of them (or AT LEAST BOTH FRONTS), and like i said pump out all the old fluid by chasing it with some fresh stuff.. you'll have not only fixed your problem but you'll love the feeling of new fluid and fresh smooth operating calipers.

One last thing, brakes getting as hot as a few of you are talkiong about WILL burn the grease out of your wheel bearings so plan on replacing them as well, if you heard rotors popping and drove on that, even if you're bearings aren't bad now they are surely out of grease inside and will be bad very shortly (you can ruin them in one day easily)

So anyone experiencing this, for your safety, please take my advice and rebuild them calipers and change your fluid.

 

[JDT]

Actually a rebuild kit doesn't sound half bad I might just do that and put on some new pads. I've been driving this car around and so far I've been LUCKY. The thing about the brake fluid is it's brand new and I haven't seen it boiling or bubbling. However, I will see what I can do about the brakes because I've got more cash in the car than I do in my pocket right now

 

[turboglenn]

Boiling the fluid is just a term that's used, very rarely will it boil in the master, but i'/m sure the way you're talking you've boiled what's in that caliper and the line probably leading up to it for about a foot..believe me, at least pump a good cup out of that calipers line by regulr bleeding if nothing else.. even when it's good and bled out just keep cycling fluid though it until you've got good clear stuff running out the lines again. Reason is when you heat fluid to a "boil" where braking suffers, each succesive time the fluid gets easier and easier to "boil". when it's just one caliper on a car that's overheating you only feel a slight loss in breaking performance instead of the dreaded "ghost pedal", but that bad fluid is still contaminating your system and should be flushed out.

When i worked on the porsche club track cars (mostly 944's) when all the cars our shop handled came backl from a track weekend we would servic them each and one thing that amazed me was even a car i personally bled and knew there was no airt in it's lines would have bubbles coming out of the caliper when i would do the gravity bleeding of that car, and we used good motul and brembo fluids in those cars, the air bubbles that formed and i still don't know the science behind how they got there, but that was a sign of boiling and overheating them on the track, and needed to be gotten rid of... The gravity bleeder i used was one quart in volume and i'd say i took about 1/4th to 1/2 a cup from each caliper on the car every track session before i got to good, non boiled fluid and felt confident in capping up the system.

There's a lot of little things i learned working there and one of the things i took home to my own car was when servicing something in the driveline or just doing maintenanceand upkeep i always will open the master cylinder and gravity bleed the caliper i'm working near if i've got the wheel off, and i've gained a lot better consistancy in brake performance by practicing this step.

in case you don't know exactly what a gravity bleed is, it's simple, as long as you're not messing with the caliper like pressing the pads in or messing with the brake pedal you simple hook a hose to the bleeder nipple and loosen it - have the cap off at the master before hand though.. let it drain for a little while and then tighten back up..the fluid will move really slow so don't be affraid to let it sit there for 10 minutes or more bleeding and remember not to mess with the system by touching the pedal or anything or you'll be getting yourself intop having to do a regular bleeding

 

[JDT]

Sounds good, I'll try gravity bleeding tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the tip, it's helpful to know these things beforehand.

Also, do you have any tips on tightening the parking brake.

 

[turboglenn]

Sounds good, I'll try gravity bleeding tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the tip, it's helpful to know these things beforehand.

Also, do you have any tips on tightening the parking brake.

NO problem, if you're wanting to just make the brake tighter without pulling the lever as far then there's a 10mm nut on the setup where the cables tie together under the center console, tightenm that up and you can get it like new.. Just make sure you have to pull it up at least 6 inches before it starts to really grab or you might have your e-brake pads draggng even with the brake let all the way down.

 

[JDT]

I'm trying to find that nut but I can't seem to locate it. I don't see the wires either (I have the console pulled). The lever has a rotating bracket, but after that I don't really see any wiring.

 

[turboglenn]

there's a 10mm nut on a threaded piece that is where the cable hooks to the ebrake, you can't miss it, basically IIRC it's under the ebrake handle, if it's not there your ebrake isn't hooked up