Okay, this has happened a few times over the past few weeks, bear with me, this is going to be a lengthy post and I'm going to try to give every detail I can.

The problem first happened on the drivers side only, noticed the truck pulling to the left, pulled over to the side and the wheel was just smoking from the brake hanging so bad.
A few days before this I had crossed a river back to a camping spot that we go to every year for memorial day weekend, this was the week before memorial day, I was just scoping out the way back to the camping spot, making sure my truck could even make it back there. The river was at least two and a half feet deep, the truck crossed perfectly, but every brake component was obviously submerged. So, like i said, a few days after I crossed, the drivers side brake started dragging pretty bad and I think eventually just wore down and everything was back to normal. I needed the truck for the week, figured I'd look at the problem after the memorial day weekend.

fast forward to memorial day weekend (no more problems inbetween time) - crossed the river, no problems, came back out at the end of the weekend, everything seemed fine. Drove the truck all last week, still not forgetting about that drivers side brake..but just let it go due to being lazy .

Took the truck for a spin last night, both front brakes started hanging up bad and from what I can tell, had to pretty much completely wear those pads down because its not dragging right now.

I've read over some posts related to this issue and some say that the slide pins could be stuck, i'm thinking maybe the water got in there and took any and all grease out? I've also read that the rubber hoses that run to the calipers tend to seperate on the inside and restrict brake flow as well. I've read about people replacing everything from the master cylinder to the calipers in order to fix their issue, but I don't want to replace something that i don't have to. I'm thinking that crossing the river definitely played a large part in the problem, but i'm just not sure where the problem lies.

Has anyone else had an issue like this? I thought it might have been the master cylinder, but the rear brakes are fine and when I drive it now it doesn't hold pressure in the pedal like it did last night. Again, sorry about the length of the post, but I figure more information is better than less. Any ideas or help on this issue would be greatly appreciated, I'd much rather fix it myself than give it to a mechanic for a week. Thanks!!

 

Jack up the truck and look at the calipers and brake pads to see what condition they are in...if the calipers and brake pads look good, then I'd say the brake lines could be your problem.

 

I know the brake pads are shot from being locked up and me driving it back home. I'm not quite sure how to tell if the calipers are bad, I'll inspect the movement of the pistons and make sure the slide pins are greased, but other than that is there any signs i should be looking for as to whether the caliper is salvagable or not? Also, do you mean the metal brake lines or the rubber brake hoses? The lines, to the best of my knowledge, are perfect..no corrosion, no leaks, etc. The hoses, on the other hand, I have no idea the condition of.

 

Yea just check out the pistons on your calipers to see if they're functioning properly...the brake lines I was talking about were the ones that connect to your calipers. If your calipers are good, then these brake lines are more than likely your problem.

 

The master cylinder has two sections, one for the front and one for the rear so don't rule that out just because the rear works fine. My Ford van did the exact same thing. The front locked up (both sides), smoke, etc. The rear was fine.
I replaced the MC and it worked fine. Unfortunately the lock up may have damaged your calipers and may have collapsed the fluid lines to the calipers so check them out too. The MC for my vehicle was only $28.00 and since the van has 180,000 miles on it, the MC was due to be replaced anyway even if it was not the problem so it was not an issue of replacing parts just to find the problem.
It could the slides need lubricating with brake lubricant, but it is most likely the calipers or the master cylinder.
One caliper sticks a little every once and a while on the front as it was likely damaged (the seals get cooked) by the locking so that is on my to do list. If I let it sit a few minutes and pump the pedal it unlocks itself. The other side still works fine.

 

Wow, I didn't know there was two sections on the MC...you learn something new everyday. New proposal: check your calipers and MC, if that's not your problem then check the rubber hoses to the calipers.

 

Thinking back, I'm around 85% sure that the problem lies within the calipers. It just doesn't make sense to me that the hoses or lines could be the problem. The issues started after I went through that damn water, so that would have nothing to do with the hoses at all, but water would get all into the slide pins, pistons, etc...

I think I'll pull that apart tonight and see whats going on

-also hoping that the heat from the brakes dragging didn't damage anything...

 

1. Things break at any time so it could be a coincidence with the water. I have driven my truck and many other vehicles in water up to the doors (sometimes for miles) and I have never had a caliper failure from that.
2. If your MC is bad and you put new calipers on the truck, you will fry the new caliper seals and ruin the calipers.
Just wanted to warn you about that.
Good luck.

 

That's in case if the brake MC seals fail, you won't have the ride of your life in our favorite vehicle with no brakes. The front and back have their own plungers and seals in the MC. It's one rod with two separate sets of plunger/seals. Well actually when you put on brakes and only one set works it will also be quite a ride too when it takes about 10 miles to stop from 70 of course if the front fails and all you have is the rear brakes, it's like a Disneyland terror ride.

 

Started ripping into it the other night, wanted to get the pistons to move out a little further so I could inspect them, hit the brake pedal...big mistake...one piston popped right out and fell on the ground, the other did not move. So..I pushed the piston back in and took it up to autozone and got a replacement caliper, figured since I would have to bleed them I might as well replace the hoses as well. Got everything back together, bled all calipers and took it for a spin. The side that had the new caliper (drivers side) was perfect, however the passenger side was dragging horribly, so while I was pretty upset that I had to tear back into it, at least I found my problem. Took the passenger side caliper off, made another trip up to autozone for a new caliper, put it on, re bled everything, no drags and she stops on a dime. Very glad I didn't have to mess with the master cylinder, and the process turned out to be pretty easy, just time consuming...but I definitely saved myself a few hundred dollars not taking it to a garage, and that sense of accomplishment is priceless. Thanks for all the help guys