I was stopped at a stop light and the guy gets out of his car behind me and states that my back left wheel was smoking and indeed it was very much so. I pulled in the the nearest gas station, and it didnt smell like brake, and there was plenty brake pad left. it cooled down and i drove home to post this now, it seems ok now, but i got no idea, the rim is still clean with no break dust on it. I think b/c im drving on blown rear struts they started to leak on the roter? No idea ,plz help!

 

did you drive through a puddle? if you have been driving for an extensive pd of time, and you ran through a puddle or something, then it could very well smoke. otherwise, i have no idea

 

nope it was very drive out and i was only driving for like 20mins, amnd i wanst braking from like 80mph to zero, there was a lot of smoke, something was burning

 

it was only the one back left, im hoping to figure this out soon so i can get it fixed tomorrow b/c if there is a prob down there i think its a safty issue, or maybe no prob at all, and i dont have Anti-lock btw

 

2 probable causes...

1) maybe it is the strut oil contaminating the brakes... not likely IMO

2) that caliper is dragging/seized...

You should remove the tire to check either way...

 

i was leaning towards the shock leakin, but if the caliper was to be dragging or seized is there something that caused this? or a way to prevent it?

 

Our cars have a reputation for cheap rear calipers that are susceptible to sticking when dirty. Mine began sticking slightly while I was coming back from the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. However, mine never smoked and brake dust was evident all over the wheel. It didn't harm the rotor but I needed new rear pads and they had to take the calipers apart and clean them. Excess brake dust was the cause; but I hadn't serviced them for a while and my car sits around alot as I commute via subway during the week and it sits around in the garage.

Good luck locating the problem.

 

When one of my calipers started to go it went slowly as well. You could tell it was dragging because it started to groan every now and then, especially in mild corners. If this is the problem, there is nothing you can do except rebuild or replace that caliper.

 

If it is the rear caliper, as stated above, you'll have to replace/rebuild it. You can check by just spinning each of the rear wheels while up on jackstands with handbrake off (block off the front tires!). They should both spin freely, and evenly (assuming only 1 will fail at once).

 

i spoke with a tech today and he said that seems like one caliper seized and it might be the bridge or the piston or it might never happen again

 

The exact same thing happend to me a year or so ago. I suspect that the rear left caliper siezed for a little bit. It was a lot of smoke too. I took it to a mechanic the same day checked out everything, he said it was fine. Never happened again


Jsut get it checked out.