KnightRider

So, on Easter I drove my truck about 50-60 miles to my grandparents house. about 10 miles away from their house, I noticed the truck seems like its lagging so I pull over at the nearest gas station. Couldnt smell anything or see anything that would make it obvious that something was wrong. So, I get in and drive on. I start noticing that when I hit my brakes, the wheel turns right and pulls that way. Just before I am about to turn on to their street, I start smelling hot brakes. When I pull in to their driveway and get out, I see steam rising from my left-front wheel well. Its so hot, I can not get even close. I let it cool and was able to find a Sears Auto Center nearby (only place open and they didnt have a wait time). I drove it over with no issues and they found no issues either. Today, I took it in to a shop I trust and they find no issues, but recommend the cheaper thing to do is replace the brake hoses and see what happens.


Any ideas?

white89gt

Exactly what they said, brake hoses. However, if it got that hot.... I'd start to be worried about the condition of the piston seal on your caliper(s).

KnightRider

I had the shop replace both front brake hoses. Lets see what happens

eff1fifty

Sounds to me like your caliper seized. Might have gotten unstuck (for the meantime). Keep an eye on it. You'll warp your rotor if it keeps getting hot like that. Then when you slow down you'll get all bouncy.

maccavvy

mine had been stood a while.. one caliper was seized but to be sure I replaced both hoses and both front calipers..

Hammer Mechanic

I had.

Hammer Mechanic

I had this exact scenerio occur with me almost as soon as bought mine. Same side too...lol. The caliper definately seized. I knew it was the caliper because several days before I changed the pads and that caliper piston was certainly difficult to retract prior to reinstalling the caliper. I also noticed that side had considerably more wear on the pads so I knew I was chancing it because it obviously was an issue with the previous owner. Not having another caliper handy and needing my truck ASAP I decided I would change the caliper another day. I didnt have a warm fuzzy about sticking that caliper back on. Anyways...a few days later I stopped at a light and then couldn't get it over 40 mph when I accelerated. I drove it about three miles trying to free it up but I was smelling brakes bad. I pulled into a convience store and the whole parking lot filled with smoke so I ran in the store and grabbed their extinguisher and stood by. I worked on fighter aircraft for years and when pilots got a hot brake light indication in the cockpit after landing we just stood by and made them sit at the end of runway with engines running while waiting for them to cool. We would use a temp sensing gun to "shoot the brakes" as we called it and check when they were cool enough before we cleared them to taxi back to the ramp. We would only use the fire bottle if we saw flame. My point here is if it happens again never shoot an extinguisher at hot brakes unless absolutely necessary...like if you see flames.. Depending on the agent used you could make many more problems. And stay clear...tires can explode in a hot brake condition. Best thing to do is pull over immediately and let them cool, but I wanted to get home...lol.

Anyways....When my brakes finally cooled enough I tried driving it again and the brakes were fine. I changed the caliper and put another set of new pads/rotor in next day anyway. That previous ones I just recently installed were already toast. I would change yours as well. That was 8 months ago and never had the problem again.