[Mk2] [NA] *sigh* front drivers wheel getting really hot!!

[No_more_GT4]

Good evening guys & gals. Well not so good for me actually These darn brakes are playing up again.

All on a UK 1995 Rev 3.

Back at the start of the year I was noticing horrible wobble & vibration through the steering wheel while driving at around 60-80 mph. When stopped driving I checked the wheels & I was noticing the front wheels were unusually hot after driving, (I have standard wheels by the way).

So I had both front calipers & front pads changed in Jan '09. Then in June, the rear drivers side wheel started getting hot, so I had the O/S/R caliper & both sets ofleft & right rear pads changed for new ones.

All was good for a short while, until today I noticed the O/S/F wheel was damn hot, & I mean so hot I could only touch it for a few seconds before my hand got too hot.

It surely can't be the caliper as it's xxxxxx new!

It does feel as though my front brakes are binding again when coming to a stop, & when driving with a passenger today, the wobble through the steering wheel was so horrible it actually felt like my tyre and been squared off

This is really p1$$ing me off now as I've forked out nearly £600 in parts & labour since Jan & I thought the problem had been solved .

Could it be the sliders on the O/S/F caliper than need greasing up or possibly the brake cable itself that needs changing

I never had these kind problems with my ST205

Any help or educated guesses that I could go to my mechanic with will be greatfully received.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Rich

[The TVIS Kid]

Definatly sounds like a sticking caliper. Was it a brand new one you used when you changed the previous sticking one or a second hand unit? You could try taking it a part and regreasing the sliders but it could be the piston that is sticking and in that case all the grease in thw world wont make a difference.

Second hand calpiers are around £30 off ebay or £50 off GTS chris (his are checked too) and are simple enough to change. Hwever if you had a new one fitted before or it wasn't long ago i would take it back for a refund.

[Turbocarl]

Did you replace the flexi hose when you replaced the caliper??

If not I would replace that before anything else. if they are damaged internally they cause the same problems - I found this out the hard way after replacing EVERY thing else!!

hth Carl

[raptor95GTS]

I've had a slider in the pad carrier seize and it has the same effect.

[No_more_GT4]

Yeah the caliper was a recon item on an exchange basis for my old one. I've contacted my mechanic, Greg, & if it is a faulty caliper he said it can be exchanged for another one free of charge.

I didn't know I could get them off here for £50 I paid about £100 each for the exchanged calipers.

No Carl, I dont think the flexi hose was replaced with the caliper. Greg did mention this & he'll have a look.

Thing is Greg is always booked up & the soonest he can look at it is on the 20th of Aug I trust him with my car though, so think it's worth the wait

Thanks again for your advice guys

Rich

[The TVIS Kid]

£50 is just for a second hand unit, not a reconditioned caliper. I think £100 is about right. Three weeks away is a long time. Maybe you could have a go yourself. I'm no mechanic but will give most things a try and changing my front caliper was not very hard at all. The only time consuming problem was getting the bolts undone.

[raptor95GTS]

make sure it's not the carrier that is sticking. Might be nothing to do with the recon'd caliper

[No_more_GT4]

Carrier

Care to elaborate a little there Allan Do you mean the sliders

I do normally give these things a go TVIS Kid. I changed the rear caliper & pads myself, with no problems. When it came to bleeding the brakes, I thought I had done it right, but the brakes just didn't feel right when being used, so I booked it in & it felt right after that

Rich

[sir chad]

I'd check the sliders first, it's a really straight forward job - easy diy.
If you're not a confident mechanic, Grove Garage are Toyota specialists 01273 773055 they're in Hove and are excellent.
Chad

[raptor95GTS]

Carrier

Care to elaborate a little there Allan Do you mean the sliders

I do normally give these things a go TVIS Kid. I changed the rear caliper & pads myself, with no problems. When it came to bleeding the brakes, I thought I had done it right, but the brakes just didn't feel right when being used, so I booked it in & it felt right after that

Rich

the carrier - that's what bolts to the hub and holds the brake pads in. The caliper then bolts onto the carrier.

The carrier has a slider top and bottom, my passenger side one seized on the bottom slider = hot wheel and smoking pads

[No_more_GT4]

Ahh, right I got ya. I do think that it was only the caliper that was exchanged/fitted & not the carrier section. When I looked at the calipers when they were fitted I noticed that the caliper looked shiner than the carriers.

I'll have a look on Tues/Wed/Thurs as thats when I'm off next.

Whats the procedure for un seizing a carrier/slider Is there a particular type of grease to use, or just the normal yellow-ish stuff

Rich

[raptor95GTS]

I just noticed your first post with the comment - never had this type of problem on the GT4 - yep that's because it has a proper caliper design and not this sliders pish on mr2's!

The carrier sliders should pop out but they have a hex head on them you can use to er twist them out. I believe high temperature grease is used but someone else can confirm

[No_more_GT4]

Well I booked the car into my local garage for it's MOT in Sept & to check the O/S/F caliper. Passed it's MOT, but needed new front pads which royally pi$$ed me off as the pads were only 6 months old.

All was rosy, but the wheel has started to heat up AGAIN & it's really p1$$ing me off now.

The O/S/F caliper was replaced with a recon caliper back in Jan, with new pads. I know it's not the caliper at fault as this item has been checked. My bet is on the sliders.

The top one seems to slide in & out fine, but the bottom one isn't as easy.
How easy is it to replace the sliders & where is the best place to get a new slider kit from?

Could the drivers side front disc be warped? hence, causing the problem

This is really getting to me now. The car is my daily driver & I'm beginning to hate the car. I know I have never shown the same enthuasim for the MR2 as I did with the GT4, but this is just ridiclious.

On top of the brake problem, I now have a loud clonking noise coming from the O/S/F which I'm guessing is probably a drop link? It happens when I go over pot holes & small uneven surfaces in the road. It's definitely a loud 'metal on metal' noise.

Plus a weird noise coming from the rear passenger side wheel area, not an engine speed related noise, but road speed related as it continues when I put car into neutral & coast along.

Arrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh

[going4the1]

The sliders (if they move in and out with relative ease) will not be your problem. To cause the amount of heat (and pad wear) that you are describing it is more likely to be a partially seized caliper piston. The sliders would have to be virtually seized to cause this.
The sliders function is only to centralise the caliper on the disc. There is only minimal movement on the slider when the pedal is depressed. The culprit is more likely to be the lower piston on the caliper. It will be locked in the 'out' position due to corrosion etc. Rebuild kits from Brake international provide all the seals for the pistons and the sliders.

http://www.brakesint.co.uk/

A warped disc would provide a juddering feel to the pedal. So it's not that.

The knocking on the front could be any number of problems. A common problem is the intermediate drive shaft. Reach down under the dashboard and grab the shaft give it a good shake. If it mimics the noise you hear then there is a fix (cheap) available.

The upper shock mount is also a possible cause. To confirm this the front end needs to be jacked up. Grasp the chromed strut and again give it a shake. Any play should become obvious.

The rear noise could be caliper related - it could also be a wheel bearing. Any heat there?

[No_more_GT4]

The O/S/F caliper is a new re-con item & only 8 months old. The piston can't surely be coroded My mechanic had a look at the piston & confirmed that they are moving freely & said it must be the sliders.

No heat in the rear wheel. It's recently had it's MOT, so if it was a bearing I think it would have failed the MOT. The rear pads were changed for new pads recently & thats when the noise started.

I'll be jacking her up tomorrow & having a wiggle & look around

I'll let you know. Thanks for the advice so far guys

Rich

[raptor95GTS]

my lower passenger carrier slider was seized solid causing the brake to drag. I'll need to do the rear carriers as the inside pads on both calipers is not really being used.

[No_more_GT4]

Well, here's the latest update.

The knocking from the front has completely stopped. I was coming home the other day & it sounded as though something had fallen off my car as I heard something hit the underside when driving along. I've had the garage look over it & they couldn't see anything that needed replacing or that had come lose

The noise coming from the rear was the bearing which was changed.
& the D/S/F sliders were greased up & fine.

However........

I drove it home from the garage yesterday afternoon, parked it up & didn't use it until this morning when I went to work. Noticed very slight steering wheel wobble/vibration on the motorway at around 80mph & thought, 'great, here we go again'.

Got to the carpark, checked the front wheel & it was baking hot again, with a scortching disc

Now, the caliper is fine, the sliders are fine & re greased. Could it be the actual disc that has somehow managed to become slightly warped? I did read somewhere that it maybe the brake pipe hose that needs replacing as it could be coroded, but in the MOT there was no mention of this (if it were the pipe)

This is just doing my head in now. It's the 3rd time it's been into the garage for the same problem (the 1st two times the car was taken in were to my normal mechanic, 3rd time was a different garage).


PLEASE, anyone, suggestions....

My much appreciated thanks in advance.......

Rich

[Lewis Jay]

Take you car to someone who knows and cares about MR2`s mate.

The garage you use obviously dont know or dont care!

It can only be your brakes binding from sticking piston`s or slider`s.

Theres also a very good chance you discs are warped now too.

[going4the1]

Warped discs

Raise the front of the car. Spin the wheels. If the discs are warped then the pads will catch on the discs for only part of the circumference.
If this were the case you would feel a vibration/juddering when you braked progressively from higher speeds - say 60mph +

You've never mentioned this - so it is unlikely to be a warped disc.


Caliper

Still with the front end raised. Spin the front wheels in turn. If the calipers are binding, that side will stop spinning more quickly. If the garage has greased the pins - the ONLY other cause of additional friction is due to a seized piston.

My money is on this - your 'new' caliper is likely to be the problem.

Brake pipe

Corroded or not - this has no effect upon your problem.

The judder you are getting is probably due to an unbalanced wheel. This might explain the sound you heard - a weight may have fallen from the rim.

[No_more_GT4]

Warped discs

Raise the front of the car. Spin the wheels. If the discs are warped then the pads will catch on the discs for only part of the circumference.
If this were the case you would feel a vibration/juddering when you braked progressively from higher speeds - say 60mph +

You've never mentioned this - so it is unlikely to be a warped disc.

Hi ya,
I'm sure that when I had the car up in the air last time, the pads do catch the disc on only one part of the circumference of the disc.

There is a vibration/juddering when braking from higher speeds, I forgot to mention this

A knackered disc is the only thing I can think it could be. Both front & one rear caliper have now been replaced & have been inspected & given the all clear from any sticking/corrosion as they are re con calipers.

I've got my eye on a set of discs on Ebay that a member on here is selling. Ebay No. 190340255376.
Not too sure what make they are, but I've PM'd him anyway

Rich