FishyMan

Okay I just finish with the brakes for the FRONT for my 97 Max.
I did the following.

NEW ROTORS, CENTRIC PREMIUM
PBR Metal Masters
I greased the sliders, behind pads, and shims themselves.

I took it for a spin and I did a series of sudden stops when I could, from 40-0, 30-0 whichever was possible due to traffic. Anyhow I started to smell something funny and when I got back (about 4-5 mins driving) white smoke literally was coming out of my brakes.

Could it be that the excess grease fell off onto the rotors? What could it be, maybe I torqued the wheels back on too tight??? By the way, how does brake dragging feel and sound like? During normal acceleration the brakes didn't squeek or squeel and I played with the pedal to make sure it didn't lock up. But exactly how can you tell if your brakes are dragging?

Please help me out. The pedal feels a tad different and I had only like a baby squeek.

Thanks.

konak85

iTrader: (10)

when the car is jacked up, can you spin the wheels fairly easily with your hands?
Go for a few short drives and see if it becomes less, thats what i did with mine. Theres a chance your calipers may be seized, i had to replace one of my rears.

FishyMan

I only did front and I have about 76k. Car never had any problems and is well taken care of.

The front spins good, with hand though both sides I can hear the pad/rotor in contact. I drove it a 2nd time and both sides sounded like pad/rotor were in contact.

konak85

iTrader: (10)

Go for a few more low speed short drives and see what happens, don't go too fast or you'll warp the rotors. Did you wipe off the oil coating on the rotors before installing? I think it'll be fine after a few drives though.

FishyMan

Okay so I should just drive it slowly after bedding them in (somewhat)?

I'll have my mom drive it for a few days to work and commute before I take it for the main roads, freeways etc.

The 2nd time wasn't as bad, no visible smoke, and just a slight smell. I did clean it w/ brake cleaner but maybe not as good. I'll pickup some more and see how it goes. Pedal feels a tad diff't, nothing wierd but it doest stop a lot better imo, though the squeek is still there once in a while.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Thats supposed to happen when you bed new brakes in correctly!
It means you reached the very high temps needed to burn them in. If you drove around for a bit more using the brakes very lightly they would have cooled down more and you wouldn't have seen the smoke when you stopped.

FishyMan

Thanks, it's just that they smelt funny like something was burning, could've been the small residue here and there. It was a bit traffic and I couldn't really couldn't cool down or do much, but I'll try take them for another spin tonight.

Do I :

1) Continue to bed them in? or
2) Just drive lightly for about 50-100 miles?

I live near the city so I'm always going to be in traffic. I hope I did things correctly and that I didn't ruin anything. They feel a bit different.

*BTW, how does brake dragging SOUND, or FEEL?

Thanks.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

Rotors come with a residual grease layer on them, and you just burned that off.

If you're referring to caliper being frozen, then that feeling is not too noticeable, but the rotors will be nearly on fire depending on the severety of it.... Drive around normally, and try not to use the brakes too much and if you have an optical pyrometer or some type of thermal measuring device and take readings from each rotors, and if you have one reading higher than the others, that could be a dragging caliper. or you could be brave, and make sure you don't do many sudden stops, and touch them with your hand ..

FishyMan

The weather here is fairly warm and what not. I thought that if there's brake dragging or caliper siezing would equate to screeching sound and a lack of accelerations as the pads are stuck closed and not free floating. Prior to installation of rotors I was trying to clean the oil coating. Perhaps I didn't clean it good enough or something. I'll try again, have my mom drive it on a few short trips.

* I really dont have those cool gadjets but I'm using my 5 senses to tel me :P

Thanks again.

Nismo

iTrader: (18)

sounds normal to me with the smoke and smell. If you think its still dirty then wait till its cooled off and blast everything with brake cleaner.

ImmaSquashYou

iTrader: (7)

yup, i just chagned my brakes n then my dad was yelling there's smoke comingo ut of your tires!!! i was like..its ok dad, it just the grease, he got really worried. heh. but next tmie, don't compltely stop but keep on rolling, that way tehre's less chance of warping your rotors

FishyMan

So how should I drive it now? Just gently and brake it in slowly?

I couldn't roll I live by town side area. I tried my best, but couldn't.

Nismo

iTrader: (18)

Just drive it normal

Groundz

When I did my brakes, I used Brembo slotted all around, with EBC greens on the front and hawk HPS on the rear. EBC for some reason doesn't make a rear pad set. Anyhow, Rotors I sprayed clean with ample amounts of brake clean to remove the oily coated the factory applies to keep them from rusting/corroding. I also completely removed all of the calipers to paint them which makes for a longer job. After I put everthing back together and properly bled the old brake fluid out of the bake system, I went for a bit of a ride to bed the bakes. If anyone else has ever used the EBC's they know there is a coating on them, and when it burns off, it smells like an eraser burning. Luckily I have a bussiness park right donw the street where I could get it to speed and do rolling stops. After getting them up to temp I let them cool down before driving it agian. When I did go back out after they had cooled, they stopped the Car better than ever before. Rotors should always be cleaned before putting them on the car, the oily residue thats on them should not be left on them. Even greasy finger prints could affect the brakes. Also avoid touching the brake pad contact surface with dirty oily hands, Pad surfaces tend to absorb oil and grease. Brakes are very easy to replace, but they have a very big job to do. So take your time clean parts that need it, grease the slider pins, I see a lot of people never use a thread locking compound, or a torque wrench. Both a torque wrench and lok-tite are made for a reason. Yes you can do the job without them, but not properly.

ThurzNite

iTrader: (13)

Where do you use the thread-locking compound? Do you use it on every thread on your car? How do you remove the bolt later? The Lok-Tite I have needs to be heated to be removed. Did I get the wrong one?

Jae

FishyMan

Just to update. I drove it again today and no visible smoke, no hard burning smell either. My main concern is the brake dragging. How can I tell? When I accelerate it feels great, no scrapping or screeching and no holding back on one side or the other.

Everything feels great, though maybe the pedal felt just a slight different. It doesn't squeel but I do get tiny squeeks from time to time.

Overall I think it's okay.

dvpatel99se

iTrader: (1)

Umm if/when your brakes are dragging, wouldn't you feel like you lost power? If it feels great when accelerating, then doesn't that mean that you are all set?

FishyMan

Hope so.. :P

Thanks...