most of you have probably come across my other post, well a mate from work suggested it might have been binding brakes, so i went on here to look, and yeah, the burning rubber smell i occasionally got, reduced performance, rubbing sound, and the fact it dissapeared with a very light left footed depression on the brake stopped it all point to this, however theres two queries i have, my car doesnt get left standing for a long time, which seems to be the main cause when i did a search on here for binding brakes. which doesnt make sense as my car is in use every day, and it happens after about 5 miles of 40+mph driving. it doesnt seem to happen if i do less than that at less than 40mph tho. :confused:

I stand to be corrected, but I think what's happening is that the brake pads are heating, expanding and then sticking within the caliper. I had similar on my 2000 felicia 1.9D. Try taking the pads out and rubbing the top and bottom parts of the pad where it comes into contact with the caliper with coarse sand paper. The idea is to get rid of any burrs or thick paint that may cause them to stick in the caliper. Then put a SMALL amount of copper grease on the contact points you've just cleaned. Obviously you don't want to get grease on the friction material or disc as this will not improve your stopping distance!!!!!!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee u know that u might be right, will suggest it to the garage because its weird that its only just started happening since the first long drive i did after having my pads changed. i also found the repair sheet too, whihc stated the calipers had been serviced/checked and sliding pin re-lubed.

but after what happened when i took my wheel off on monday, i think im gonna leave it to the garage to do - i somehow managed to de-thread my wheel nut putting the front wheel on!

I got an intermitent binding kerbside front brake on my 98 Felicia too. I get a 'too hot to touch' wheel hub (the otherside is just a bit warm) and a ringing noise that comes and goes. the noise can be stopped by braking, but then it comes back. I've noticed no loss of power and it brakes fine.

It's worse after the pads have been renewed. The disc has been changed a while ago and the caliper got changed too, but the sticking is still there.

I really enjoyed reading all your informative posts, this site has a good feel and design to it too.

I'll pass on the idea of sanding down the pad edges, to the mechanic I use. and keep you all posted.

cheers

it's either the problem as mentioned above where the pads are sticking to the caliper... or there may be a burr inside the caliper piston causing it to stick in place

Thanks for the prompt reply teflontom,

the garage are going to return the caliper as faulty and try another on the car. I just realised that they've already tried the 'pad edge' tip mentioned earlier. So hopefully the caliper change will fix things.

i had this problem and it was the sliding pins at fault. They are very suseptible to seizing and need lubed well.

I would suggest checking them yourself

Thanks fro the reply harryhill, but I Don't feel confident to re-lube the pins myself, anyway the garage know what they're doing and have greased the pins many times and tried the 'sanding down pad edges fix' mentioned above, but I still got the problem.

Car went into the garage last friday, but the 'sticking' had disappeared altogether when the garage had the car on the ramps and were considering changing the caliper under warranty, they decided not to change the caliper becaus the problem had gone.

So i'm stuck with the problem and the garage don't know what else to do. They said they would ask around, this has been dragging on for weeks.

The problem to summarise from my post above is:

I got an intermitent binding kerbside front brake on my 98 Felicia. I get a 'too hot to touch' wheel hub (the otherside is just a bit warm) and a ringing noise that comes and goes. the noise can be stopped by braking, but then it comes back. I've noticed no loss of power and it brakes ok.

It's worse after the pads have been renewed. The discs have been changed 2 years ago and a month ago the caliper got changed too, but the sticking is still there. The noise comes and goes at speeds from 30 to 70.

I don't enjoy driving the car so much, knowing the hub is getting too hot to touch, beause this doesn't seem safe. Otherwise its been a good car.

Any ideas? advice?

THanks for taking the time to read this long post.

ps What makes the pads move off discs when you release the brake pedal?

Do small return springs in the master cylinder body (just before the line to the caliper)play any part in the process?

What makes the pads move off discs when you release the brake pedal?

nothing!

Do small return springs in the master cylinder body (just before the line to the caliper)play any part in the process?

ruturn springs??:confused: the pedal has a return spring to raise it back up, but the master cylinder doesn't have anything like that. but on the abs models it does have a pressure senstive valve fitted to the outlet ports for biasing the brake pressure front/back depending on the load, but this wont affect the calipers ability to release the pad from the disc

Thanks for reply teflontom, any ideas about what's causing the 'sticking'? and is it a safety issue with the hub getting hot?

i think it may be some of the problems allready outlined in this thread... sticking guide pin, sticking piston or pad getting stuck to caliper/piston

hi again.

From what you have said about the brakes i have to make a couple of points. Firstly you have had new pads and discs and caliper so in theory your brakes should be spot on.

Secondly you say the garage have lubed the pins. Well i am still stubbornly convinced that this may be your problem as they seize on and need cleaned up before greasing up and putting in.

I know you say you are not confident in doing this but it is dead easy. First of all remove the road wheel. Then if you look at the top and bottom of your brake caliper you will see two bolts. Remove these and slide the caliper up out the way.

You now will see the nut end of the sliders that go into the rubber dust guards before going into the caliper mounting assembly.

Don't be fooled by the nut shapes there is no threads as they are smooth inside. If you push these in they should bounce back or at least move ok. If not this is your problem. If they are seized get some WD40 and a pair of mole grips to ease them gently back and out, but be patient .

Once out clean up with some fine wet and dry and apply loads of grease and ease in and out the hole (this sounds rude). Once you are happy reassemble and take for a spin. If it isn't this then the only other option i know of would be a problem with the master cylinder but unlikely.

Thanks for the extra detail, I'll show the garage the posts, but I'm pretty confident they are covering all the points that are mentioned. They said the same as you, that it seemed that the mastercylider was the next logical step to check/change, but problems here were really unlikely...

re. the master cylinder, what could go wrong with it? is it very expensive to change it?

cheers again:)

IME the usual thing to go wrong with the master cylinder is that the seals wear and leak, but that causes the exact opposite problem to you've got!

hi again.

From what you have said about the brakes i have to make a couple of points. Firstly you have had new pads and discs and caliper so in theory your brakes should be spot on.

Secondly you say the garage have lubed the pins. Well i am still stubbornly convinced that this may be your problem as they seize on and need cleaned up before greasing up and putting in.

I know you say you are not confident in doing this but it is dead easy. First of all remove the road wheel. Then if you look at the top and bottom of your brake caliper you will see two bolts. Remove these and slide the caliper up out the way.

You now will see the nut end of the sliders that go into the rubber dust guards before going into the caliper mounting assembly.

Don't be fooled by the nut shapes there is no threads as they are smooth inside. If you push these in they should bounce back or at least move ok. If not this is your problem. If they are seized get some WD40 and a pair of mole grips to ease them gently back and out, but be patient .

Once out clean up with some fine wet and dry and apply loads of grease and ease in and out the hole (this sounds rude). Once you are happy reassemble and take for a spin. If it isn't this then the only other option i know of would be a problem with the master cylinder but unlikely.

I have this very same problem with my Felicia 1.3. The brakes have been removed and the pads and calipers cleaned up and the pistons checked for sticking..but neither of these faults are evident so I am going to do as you suggest as this brake over heating problem is a real pain in the **** tbh

Thanks for the info Harryhill and I will post back here if it cures the problem.

I have seen a few of the front flexible hoses collapse internally which then allows pressure to be pushed past but not return. the easy test for that is when its binding stop and release the bleed nipple to allow pressure out and if it stops binding thats the fault.

Also seen a few with sticking brake bar bushes so the pedal stays down slightly and could also be the servo sticking.