I need some emergency insight/advice on how to diagnose this problem...

Today (Fri.) I drove to my carpool buddy's place this morning and no further than 500m from my house, smoke is pouring out from my left-rear wheel. I pulled over on a side street to see that rotor glowing red. It smelt awful too. Obviously my brake/pads are hanging. I left the car at his place (with no parking brake on) until tonight when I drove the car home. I seemed to be able to drive the car further before the car started feeling sluggish & wouldn't accelerate properly i.e. brake is dragging again.

Here's a recap of recent activities with that rear wheel from most recent to oldest:

- sprayed spring cushion thingies (are they called isolators??) with silicone spray (1 week ago)
- sprayed brake lines with silicone spray (1 week ago)
- rotated wheels (1 week ago)
- changed brake pads (3 months ago)
- left e-brake cable changed at Nissan dealership (1 year ago)

My rear right brake/rotor is perfectly fine.

FYI - Here's what the Haynes manual has to say:

On Sat. morning, I'm going to pull off my wheel & inspect the e-brake line & look for kinks and check brake lines.

Any pros got good insights for me on what I should do? I so need help.

Thanks in advance!!

felix sounds like your piston is sezied on? I hope that it goes away after you reset it I had similar problem before but not that bad.

change the brake fluid too while you're at it...you probably boiled it/let air in. The fluid changes the engagement point big time on the brakes if theres air in it. I think I've read somewhere that that old brake fluid can seize calipers up

need any help?

My brake fluid was pretty new. It's less than 9 months old. It's probably in a bad state now. I'm going to be pretty busy so I won't get much time to look at the Max. I might spend 1-2 hrs tops looking at it. I'll probably look at things in the morning while it's still cool. I think it's supposed to be a hot Sat. PM/e-mail me if your free in the morning. & thanks.

I'm free all day tomorrow.. let me know time

also have a one person brake bleeder hose thats amazing

Does 9ish sound good?

9:45?

10 characters

btw I have some grease for the caliper pins too

I've grease, anti seize, anti squeel, the brake hose.. let me know what u want me to bring

9:45 sounds good! I just realized it's almost 1 a.m.
What's with "10 characters"?

How do I not sound opportunistic??? Bring everything?

ok... add a ":45" to that PM after the 9 lol I'll start packing up at 9:20 - 9:30

you can't post unless you type more than 10 characters

felix, i'll stop by too and help out. if you have to leave, D and i can continue to troubleshoot the problem.

sounds like it might be the caliper piston. if it were the proportioning valve, wouldn't your front right be giving problems too?

i've gotta stop by steelcase and pay for the install of my Pilot Sports so i'll swing by afterwards

:30 to :45 sounds good. It's not a military operation so no need for that much accuracy in timing.

I didn't know the 10 char. protocol. I learned something new today! mwahaha

Well heeellloooo Neil! & I thought most people were either crahsed out now or partying somewhere. haha

THanks so mcuh for offering to help. That sounds great actually!! D's bring over grease & other stuff. Swing by anytime you're done with your tire install. FYI - INSIST that they use a seasoned guy to do work on your car. (That's speaking from personal experience.)

See ya later today!

OT: since coming back from the bahamas the nightlife here is pretty dry in comparison

more OT: oh, i got the Pilot Sports installed today...what a diff from the craptenza RE92s...a n00b swapped one tire and he actually did a more thorough job than the seasoned veteran in changing the tires...i was a little apprehensive with the n00b doing the balancing, but the job he did was good and i've had no vibration problems, even at 170km/h

you probably need a new caliper.try rotating the piston all way in and see what happens.definetely bleed your brakes and make sure the lr brake line is ok.

Here's the post-mortem...things actually wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared.

Thanks for writing up the summary!

Here are the pics that go along with it:

Below: Rear left rotor with reddish stuff on surface. All that was sanded off easily with 220 grit sand paper on both sides of the rotor.


Below: Orange arrow points to springloaded pivot arm that was not able to move freely. I used penetrating oil to break up any corrosion that was binding it.


Below: Since the arm was impossible to move by hand, I used my ratchet to turn the arm fully clockwise, then ccw, etc. to allow the penetrating oil to do its work. I only looked at the arm & did pay attention to anything else that was going on...and guess what happened?


Below:....the whole piston came out an dsome brake fluid started leaking out! DOH!! The piston went back in easily enough with the piston turning tool.


The final step was to bleed the brake lines to rid it of air bubbles.

The e-brake cable is intact and the caliper pins both slide freely. Phew! Luck for me it was a cheap fix. I'm sure a Nissan dealer would've charged at least $150 with taxes.

Special thanks to Dennis and Neil who sacrificed sleeping in to swing by & help. Thanks for everyone else's insights & support!!