Hello again and welcome to revenge of the braking system.
Previously (in an older thread) I had some issues with my front calipers not fully releasing. Replacing the flex lines helped them to let up. Since then, I've been trying to decide who to go with for new rotors, calipers, and brakes. Settled on: Calipers = ACDelco pro Rotor = ACDelco advantage Pads = AcDelco pro ceramic 2 calipers+2 rotors+front pads = $277 (rockauto ground shipping of $41) = Total $318 That is a chunk of change for shipping and mid tier parts.
Not 100% confident in my choice and I am open to suggestions. They were selected piecemeal since the only full kit rockauto carried was Powerstop, and I couldnt find much review and opinion on them.
However, the main point of this thread is that I am yet again having brake caliper issues with ALL FOUR.
So after replacing those flex lines, the calipers let up allowing me to drive without locking up, giving me some time to decide and get parts ordered. 105 yesterday, late afternoon I head out for some errands, on my way to my first stop (2 miles away) I notice that it feels and sounds (barely) like my front calipers were getting tight again. Pull into the office parking lot and check the heat of the wheels with my hand. Rear wheels are a bit warm, which I assumed was just because of how bloody hot it was outside. Using that as a base line, I test the fronts. They are much warmer than the rears, so I'm like great, note to self, make final decision and order those parts tonight.
An hour later I leave and drive down to the store about 2 miles away. Just about there and I get a fast yellow, so I end up braking hard, stopped, and then lifted my foot off the pedal to gently reapply just in case the heat of the hard stop convinced calipers to lock down. When I press the pedal back down, it is hard. The rest of my driving back home I noticed that the brake pedal is hard and super sensitive, like no give to it. I get about 1/2" of travel before I feel the brakes grab tight and the pedal doesnt travel any further than maybe 1" inch. While getting it back home, I could see higher RPM's just to get up to speed (35 mph), but it must not have been fully locked because when I took my foot off the brake, it would slowly creep forward. Felt the wheels when I got home, the rears felt almost as warm as the fronts did when they were acting up and even had brake dust on wheel (never did before), the front wheels were hot enough that touching longer than a brief second would have left burns.
This leads me to assume that the root cause was not the flex lines or calipers. The only change between then and now was an oil change, although it has been doing this high idle at start for a while - jumps to 1500 RPM and drops to 900 slowly over 20 seconds before taking another 20 seconds to drop down to the normal 650.
Going to do a brake boost check and pull the TB for cleaning (did it 12 months ago). Not sure if the master could be bad, I thought when the MC is bad it gives spongy no brake instead of the hard grabber I'm getting now.
Sorry for the novel
Summary:
Hard feeling sensitive brake with 1/2"-1" total travel. Grabs quick. All four feeling not releasing. Wheels are hot, with fronts near scorching.
Previously (in an older thread) I had some issues with my front calipers not fully releasing. Replacing the flex lines helped them to let up. Since then, I've been trying to decide who to go with for new rotors, calipers, and brakes. Settled on: Calipers = ACDelco pro Rotor = ACDelco advantage Pads = AcDelco pro ceramic 2 calipers+2 rotors+front pads = $277 (rockauto ground shipping of $41) = Total $318 That is a chunk of change for shipping and mid tier parts.
Not 100% confident in my choice and I am open to suggestions. They were selected piecemeal since the only full kit rockauto carried was Powerstop, and I couldnt find much review and opinion on them.
However, the main point of this thread is that I am yet again having brake caliper issues with ALL FOUR.
So after replacing those flex lines, the calipers let up allowing me to drive without locking up, giving me some time to decide and get parts ordered. 105 yesterday, late afternoon I head out for some errands, on my way to my first stop (2 miles away) I notice that it feels and sounds (barely) like my front calipers were getting tight again. Pull into the office parking lot and check the heat of the wheels with my hand. Rear wheels are a bit warm, which I assumed was just because of how bloody hot it was outside. Using that as a base line, I test the fronts. They are much warmer than the rears, so I'm like great, note to self, make final decision and order those parts tonight.
An hour later I leave and drive down to the store about 2 miles away. Just about there and I get a fast yellow, so I end up braking hard, stopped, and then lifted my foot off the pedal to gently reapply just in case the heat of the hard stop convinced calipers to lock down. When I press the pedal back down, it is hard. The rest of my driving back home I noticed that the brake pedal is hard and super sensitive, like no give to it. I get about 1/2" of travel before I feel the brakes grab tight and the pedal doesnt travel any further than maybe 1" inch. While getting it back home, I could see higher RPM's just to get up to speed (35 mph), but it must not have been fully locked because when I took my foot off the brake, it would slowly creep forward. Felt the wheels when I got home, the rears felt almost as warm as the fronts did when they were acting up and even had brake dust on wheel (never did before), the front wheels were hot enough that touching longer than a brief second would have left burns.
This leads me to assume that the root cause was not the flex lines or calipers. The only change between then and now was an oil change, although it has been doing this high idle at start for a while - jumps to 1500 RPM and drops to 900 slowly over 20 seconds before taking another 20 seconds to drop down to the normal 650.
Going to do a brake boost check and pull the TB for cleaning (did it 12 months ago). Not sure if the master could be bad, I thought when the MC is bad it gives spongy no brake instead of the hard grabber I'm getting now.
Sorry for the novel
Summary:
Hard feeling sensitive brake with 1/2"-1" total travel. Grabs quick. All four feeling not releasing. Wheels are hot, with fronts near scorching.