Topic: Front Passanger side brake sticking... HELP!

[jfrabat]

OK, so after my business trip, the Jeep stayed in the parking lot for about ten days, during which it rained quite often. 

This morning, I fired up the Jeep for the first time since I left, and it was driving fine.  As I am getting to the office, I notice the Jeep is pulliong to the right when driving, and left (HARD left!) when braking.   When I got to the office, as expected, the brake was smoking hot...

So, since it is a workday, during lunch I took it to Tire Plus during my lunch break (giving the rotors time to cool down), but on the way there, everything seemed fine with the brakes running as ussual.  I did notice a bit of pulling to the left, but I figured it was just that only one of the brakes was now properly bedded, so I did some hard stops to bed them properly, and then it was braking straight.

When I got there, they checked the caliper in question (the took of the tire and checked it, and, to be honest, I took a quick peek myself).  The brake was not sticking, and the tire rotated freely (both sides were pretty much the same).

Then as I am returning to the office from Tire Plus, again, the brake starts sticking again.  (I tried doing some hard braking to unstick it, but it is still stuck (now it is cooling in the parking lot). 

I have not done anything to the Jeep except changing tires in the last month or so, so I have NO IDEA what this could be...  Any clues as to what to check for?  By the way, the master, booster, calipers, and flexible lines were all replaced in within the past year, so they should all be good still...

Felipe

[chrisfranklin]

Maybe get the lines bled all around.  I like the Mobil 1 DOT 4 Synthetic Brake fluid.  Hope it works itself out for you.

[aw12345]

When you get the caliper to stick, crack the bleeder see if the brake luid is pressurized. If so a bad brake hose if not replace or rebuilt the brake calipers

[jfrabat]

I'll try bleeding the brakes tonight; fortunately, I have speed bleeders, so I can do this myself in a Jiffy!  If not, I'll take it to the shop tomorrow and go to work in my other car.  Honestly speaking, though, I dont think it will help (the bleeding) because it was working fine until I left for the trip (last time I worked on the brakes was more than 3 or 4 weeks ago, and I had no problems until today; why would there be air in the line now?).  In any case, I'll give it a shot!

[jfrabat]

By the way, will the stuck pad be toast at this point?  I am not sure if I should replace it or not...  It's a brand new Hawk pad, so I hope not, but I do have the old pads if I DO ned to replace them (they were fairly new also).

[chrisfranklin]

Art probably called it right, bad hose or caliper. 

Of course maybe you didn't hear that the lot where your Jeep was at was flooded while you were on your trip; so, now there's water in the lines   

[jfrabat]

Well, i bled the line, but I did not have time to try it on the road, so I will not know if it worked or not until I do.  Tomorrow I got some passangers riding with me, so I'll drive the Momm-mobile instead of the Jeep.  I guess Saturday I will know, though...

I did notice that the first few pumps of the pedal, the pedal seemed to stick; it took some time to come back up to the normal position.  After a few pumps, it was working just fine, though...  Hopefully this will be the end of the matter, but I will not know until I try it.

Thanks for the feedback!

Felipe

[Jesse-James]

Look at the "ledge" where the bottom of the caliper slides. Both of my rigs had notches that would catch once in a while. May not me the case but either way it should be smoothed out with a Dremel or something. May not be the issue (My money is on a sticky caliper piston) but you'll brake better if you do it. Also feel if the Caliper pins are sliding well, I had to take mine out of the rubber boots and clean them up and grease them. That will make it stick as well if they don't move freely.

[jfrabat]

Yeah, I am also thinking sticky caliper, but I hope it's not...  I have no one to take care of the kids from now on, so my time is even MORE limited than before, which means ANY work on the Jeep will take longer than I would like!

[sharpxmen]

could be the caliper sliders too - but since you said you just replaced them (the calipers) i assume they were inspected. 

[jfrabat]

I'll try the Jeep tomorrow and see how it works; if it continues to stick, I'll just take it to the shop that did the calipers last time, as they should be under warranty (less than one year).

[drunkencityworker]

lol...the old grease the brakes trick. I say sliders. happened to me before on my ole 80k5 plow truck. had simular symptoms. teather kids to that new bumper. i actually did tune up at park w mine

[jfrabat]

Well, it was 109 today, so working on the Jeep was a REAL PITA!!!  But anyway, after isntalling the flares, I took the Jeep for a test drive, and no issues with the brake.  I figure either the bleeding worked or the caliper got unstuck by the pumping during the bleeding...  If it comes back, I'll take it to the shop that did the calipers, but I hope it does not come back!

By the way, I also rebeded the brakes, as it was pulling a bit a t the begining, but after the rebeding, no problems!