2.5 TDI Brakes

[CRC]

Hi,

Haven't been on for a while, but still driving the old girl (2006, 114,00 miles), with no real issues apart from the head scratching every time I  pay the Car Tax (Superb 2.5 TDI average 50 mpg = £300, Porsche Boxster 2.5  average 35 mpg =£265 ..... go figure)

 

Anyway, the other day I started notiicing that my display mpg over a 26 mile A road journey that I very regularly do was down by about 5 mpg and the car was feeling like it needed a bit more throttle all the time to keep up to cruising speed. I'm used to the mpg dropping in winter by comparison with summer, but this seemed excessive.

 

Suspecting the brakes, I hand checked the temperature of the wheels after the run and found that the nearside front was really quite warm to the touch and "smelt hot", while the other three felt cold.

 

Took the caliper off, cleaned up the pads and runners with copper grease to lube the pad runners and things improved, but the wheel still felt warm after a run, albeit not as warm. Took the caliper off again, carefully pushed the piston out a reasonable way and cleaned the piston  and seal up - no rust visible, just some normal black dirt, and while I was in there, used a vacuum bleeder to bleed that caliper - fluid was OK, apart from a little dirty. Piston retracted smoothly and easily.

 

Car mpg is now back to normal values, but head scratchingly, that wheel still feels warmer than the offside front after a run, but not excessively so.

 

Discs and pads are all by Bosch and were all fitted at the same time and have been excellent with minimal wear. Car feels fine when braking, with no pulling to one side.

 

Am aiming to clean up and bleed the other calipers soon, but am puzzled about why that nearside wheel always feels warmer than the rest .... any ideas?

 

Thanks