Hi
I have a 2003 6-speed and one day i notice clicking noises(cooling down) and a smell when i got out of my car. got to the right rear and there was serious heat coming off the brake. it doesn't drag enough to notice a slowdown or even hear anything. It just will heat up. I disconnected the ebrake entirely on that wheel and it still did it. If you guys could help me out that would be great, i did a search but didn't find what i was looking for. I don't know if maybe the ebrake mechanism gets stuck or if just the caliper is shot?
thanks

 

Most likely it's time for a new caliper. It always seems to be the right one that seizes first.

 

Sounds like your caliper is seizing up. Replace it before you have to hit the brakes hard and it seizes up completely pressurized.

 

frozen caliper, happen to my friend. new caliper and set of brakes. one side of the brake was completely gone.

 

before replacing the entire caliper, you could make sure the slide pins are greased and sliding freely. If they're sticking it will result in the pad dragging...

 

+1.

I bought a new caliper before I did my rear brake job, thankfully it was just a seized slide pin, and in the same location as yours.

A vise, bench grinder, some grease and 30 minutes later, I was back in business and $150 back in my pocket.

 

what was the bench grinder for??

 

I used the wire brush side to clean up the pin.

 

I had my rear driver's side caliper seize up once (smoke coming from it). Got the caliper replaced (with a rebuilt one) and then it started making clunking noises sometimes when braking and most of the times when starting to move from a complete stop.

I went back to the place that replaced it and they greased it up more. It stopped making the clunking noises, but two days later, it seized up again (smoke coming out of it again). Then my gas mileage went really bad and I could feel half of the times the acceleration got worse. Now the gas mileage and acceleration is back to normal but it's making clunking noises again.

I'm bringing it back tomorrow. Does it sound the the 'new' caliper is bad? Could air in the brake system be causing something like this?

Btw, don't mean to hijack the thread, but it seems like a similar problem.

 

I also had this problem on both sides. The first time went away with the bad weather. This time i was replacing the rear pads and I greased the caliper pins and cleaned everything in hopes that this problem would not resurface. It was A B!TCH to push the piston back (Caliper tool with two craftsman wrenches were necessary). But the Piston went back into it's home fully and for a few days was perfect, even drove to cape cod (40 mins each way, bad on brakes, lots of stupid tourists driving bad made it worse). Unfortunately now it is smoking again after leaving the parking brake on near the beach and I believe the bad weather will make it worse.

I am looking at new calipers because I think it is probably worth it anyway.

I would suggest the same to you, cause I agree with "Ohohmax", it could potenially freeze while driving.

FYI last year when this problem started i thought it was the parking brake cable freezing, so during an oil change i asked for a price and told them the problem. He said he used to stock these calipers for a while because of how often they went bad.... and because there were a lot of maxima's around apparently. He was also shocked to see OEM calipers on my car said replace them immediately.

Hope this helps