Rear Right brake smell

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Oct 26, 2004 | 10:09 AM
  #1  
hey, so today i'm sitting in some crappy traffic and i come to a stop at a red light and i get a whiff of really hot brake pad(hopefully you guys know the smell) well anyway i'm like dam.....so i get to where i'm going and take a look at all rotors and calipers

all of them seem normal except for my rear rotor on the driver side which seems to be much warmer than all the others....and this is where the smell is coming from......however there is no smoke or visual damage anywhere

so my worst worry is that the caliper is frozen, but i really don't know what to think, i'm at school right now and my max is in a parking deck i'll prolly go get the brakes checked out tomorrow

i did put on stainless brake lines this weekend but today was the first time i've noticed the smell or anything out of the ordinary.....and i have been watching closely since saturday since i put em on
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Oct 26, 2004 | 10:36 AM
  #2  
Definetly smells like you have a sticking caliper, which is really not cool at all. I had my left rear caliper stick on me one day over the summer, eventually the brake fluid began to vaporize and made the pedal go soft. I left the car for a few hours until it cooled, then jacked it up and tried to play with it a little, to get it to loosen up. I managed to limp the car about 100 miles home, stopping every 25 miles to check the brakes. Two hours and about $100 later, new caliper installed and all is well. Very easy to do.

You said you replaced your brake lines; I've never done that or had a need for it, but did you bleed the brakes properly? How many miles are on your car?

Good luck...
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Oct 26, 2004 | 10:41 AM
  #3  
my right rear caliper seized up on me started with the weird smells, then it actually started smoking ..... it's NOT fun.... get it fixed ASAP
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Oct 26, 2004 | 11:32 AM
  #4  
yep, i'm going in for an inspection at 9 in the morning.....i did bleed all the brakes, but i don't know how much faith i have in my bleeding skills
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Oct 26, 2004 | 12:09 PM
  #5  
ya definettly frozen caliper. happened to me bout 3 weeks ago... i hated that smell and also the smoke.. it was pretty embarrassing... it was caused because my brake line was crushed
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Oct 26, 2004 | 01:37 PM
  #6  
could it be caused by my brake line being twisted?
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Oct 26, 2004 | 01:38 PM
  #7  
Quote: could it be caused by my brake line being twisted?
Yes - if there is a kink that is preventing the fluid from flowing back - I can imagine that could prevent a piston from retracting.
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Oct 26, 2004 | 01:39 PM
  #8  
hmmmmmm, might have to a little operating
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Oct 26, 2004 | 01:40 PM
  #9  
good idea to poke around the brake lines - especially since you just did the stainless steel replacement.
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Oct 26, 2004 | 01:43 PM
  #10  
b/c all my brakes were fine until i put on the SS lines

don't get me wrong though i love the SS lines, just a tap on the pedal and the car stops....but its weird it took a day and a half for problems to start showing up.....grrrrrrr
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Oct 26, 2004 | 04:34 PM
  #11  
ok, so i just drove home from GSU (about 35 miles) and got into my driveway....and no smell.....so is it possible for a caliper to just be partly sticking?

because the right rear rotor was warmer than the rear left.....
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Oct 26, 2004 | 04:47 PM
  #12  
yes - the right side might be dragging slightly...i.e. it doesn't have to be either badly dragging or not dragging at all...
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Oct 26, 2004 | 04:51 PM
  #13  
i know when i put on the SS line i had to twist it (spin the Banjo "O") to put it onto the caliper.....now that i think about it i twisted it more than the left side(since i had to do it to the left side too) but anyway....i think this might be where the problem lies.....
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Oct 26, 2004 | 06:50 PM
  #14  
check to see if emergency brake cable on that side has a cut in it and possibly stuck due to corrosion at that spot in the cable.
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