Brakes sticking?
Brakes sticking? Ok, so, a friend and I swapped the rotors on my 1998 T/A yesterday, and now i'm concerned that my brakes might be sticking a bit. When I replaced my pads a while back, one side was sticking really bad, and the brake pad was very hot when I touched it through the caliper. This time, they're not as hot, and the car doesn't decelerate quite as fast when I lift off the gas, but I still think it might be slowing too quickly. The pads are pretty warm, and if I hold my thumb against them for a while, they are fairly hot. Is this normal or should they be cool to the touch? If they are sticking, what could be causing it? I lubricated the caliper bolt that slides out as part of the caliper, but neglected to lubricate the bolt that actually comes off of the caliper. Also, I didn't have a torque wrench, so I tightened the bolts fairly tight with a ratchet. I'm not exactly sure how tight 23 lb-ft is, so is it possible that if they are too tight they might stick? Thanks for any help you can provide!
No opinions? I went and bought a torque wrench and tightened the bolts to 23 lb-ft. This seems to have helped the problem but the pads are still warm after some driving. Any thoughts?
well, there is always some contact between the pads an rotor in a disk brake setup, so I would think they would get a little warm either way. The important thing to do is make sure the pins that let the caliper float are greased up. Seems like you have that covered. BTW, I didn't use a torque wrench when I did mine, and have had no problems.
Verdict: Brakes are not sticking. Mileage has gone up since swapping the warped rotors out. I drove 127 miles today, about 40 of that was highway, the rest was city, but not like stop and go. Car took 4.7xx gallons at the pump, meaning i'm making well over 20mpg now, so i'm happy. I do get a strange clunk if I put the car in R, and turn the wheel to the right, the first time I hit the brakes I get a little clunk, but it's not affecting brake performance and i'll investigate the noise next week, but all is well with my brakes. Thanks for all of your help!
Update: Boy was I wrong. Today the caliper bolt either backed out or broke off, I dunno which. Happened at about 40mph. the caliper was literally running along the inside of my wheel. So now I have to have my mechanic fix that, and i'm sure as heck gonna have him check the other side. In addition, my wheel was internally weighted, so the free-floating caliper sheared off all my wheel weights, so i'm gonna have to have it reweighted. I'm pretty sure this will be my last attempt at messing with brakes. From now on i'll just stick to doing simple mods, and for bigger mods that I want to learn to do myself, i.e., cam swap, i'll enlist the help of more experienced LS1tech members.
Which bolt came loose? I recently did brakes/rotors on all 4 corners and am pretty surprised to hear that. There's not a whole lot that can go wrong on brakes. Maybe you forgot to tighten a bolt?
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Yeah, I'm voting with forgot to tighten the bolt as well. But, Locktite is always a good idea when putting in the caliper bolts. I have done many brake jobs, with never a single problem. Just have to take your time and check your work!
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