A few weeks ago I had replaced my rear rotors and pads and cleaned everything since my rear brake had been sticking. After a week I had no problems in the rear so I went to replace my front rotors and pads last weekend and I have noticed that they have been hot everyday. The rears are fine.

Today, after a 20 mile drive to work on cool day the front brakes were smoking. I have also noticed that at first when starting out the brakes feel spongey and then the normal feel comes back after a few pushes of the brake pedal.

This weekend I plan on taking them back apart to check them but I am pretty sure everything was put together correctly. Is it possible to have tighten some bolts on the caliper too much.

 

When you say rear were sticky , what do you mean, piston was sticking/frozen ?
Sounds like rear not doing anything (frozen piston ? ) which would make fronts do all work .

On the spongy feel, it is most likely now air trapped in system from overheating . make sure first with wheels jacked up all wheels spin ok (no frozen pistons ) then just have to track down, check the rest .
Also its good to say make/model/yr of vehicle .

 

after checking all that, if problem is still there, then it might be your proportioning valve. imo.

 

First, sorry, 2003 Accord V6 sedan.

Second, the rear caliper was sticking on passenger side of the car and after cleaning and reassembly, that problem has been fixed. I think the rear brakes are working fine now.

I will check to see if all of the wheels are spinning freely.

Where is the proportioning valve and is it something esaliy replaced?

 

 

If you have ABS it's part of the VSA module AFAIK ,which is not cheap .
Double check all calipers .


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Did you take the calliper pins out, clean them, check them, and grease them with high temp grease?

 

Since I had not had any problems with the front brakes I did not clean and grease the pins like I did in the back.
I plan on cleaning and greasing everything again, checking the lines for damage, and then replacing the brake fluid. It has been a while. If that does not fix the problem then I am taking it to the shop!

 

It's possible that your rear brakes are not working at all, causing the fronts to bear all of the braking loand and overheat. This often happens on disc+drum brake systems when the rear shoes are far out of adjustment, but it can happen on 4-wheel disc systems as well if the rear calipers are seized. Are you sure the rears are working? Can you see an obvious wear pattern on both rotors, with full pad surface contact?

Regarding your sticking caliper, were the slide pins sticking or was it the piston? I've never seen a sticking piston fixed without rebuilding or replacing the caliper. What all was involved with your "cleaning and reassembly" procedure? What sort of grease are you using to lube the pins?

If the rear brakes do indeed appear to be functioning properly, the problem is most likely either a seized front caliper piston or slide pins, or incorrect pad or rotor thickness causing constant contact. Where did you get the pads and rotors?

Ignore the comment about the proportioning valve. I can guarantee that that's not your problem.

 

I went back to look at the rear brakes. They rotors and pads have about 400 miles on them but the rotors look like they are smeared instead of uniform or shiney like the front rotors. Sorry I have no picture. I put a mark with a marker on the rotor and will go for a drive. If the mark is still there after 20-30 mile drive then I know the rear brakes are not working.

If one rear caliper is messed up will that affect the other? When working with the rear my gut feeling was that the piston was sticking not the pins, they moved freely and were still well greased when I removed them.

I bought the Brembo rotors and Axxis XBG pads from import replacement parts through their sale on this forum.

 

While you have it jacked up, if you can get someone to press brake pedal and see if back calipers are clamping/holding and releasing ok.
Also does hand brake operate ok ?
I wouldn't be surprised that the pistons are frozen in back .If you put new pads you should also see rotor marks on pad surface and pads/rotors will be very hot (to touch ) after few hard braking . Just be careful if you want to see if there hot, don't touch rotor, just feel near it you should be able to feel heat given off .

If no marks show on pads or rotor not giving off any heat after few stops see if pistons go in easy and smoothly with calipers off mounting bracket .

 

i had same exact problem with my rear passenger side on a coupe after installing brake pads. the reason why it was freezing in the winter and sticking and burning and smoking is because i didn't line up the brake pad TAB with the caliper piston grooves. This is the most important step when doing brake jobs. after about a year of driving like that and not knowing, my rear passenger rotor burnt up and had massive gashes and uneven wear due to the brake pad constantly contacting it.

after learning about the tab and re-doing my brake job, WAH LAH! PERFECT! no more freezing caliper in the winters and no more uneven gashing contact with the rotors! i replaced the rotors, and though suggested that i replace the caliper as well, i didn't yet. car runs "less sticky" and very noticeable, but if money persists, i will buy new caliper one and it should be 100%. it's at 98% now =]

 

Double checked all parts, and everything is aligned correctly, fitted correctly, and the pistons are compressing and releasing on all four capilers. The hand brake also works correctly.

I am taking to the shop this week to have it looked at.

 

Did you flush out old brake fluid , replace fluid and bled system .

How old was the fluid or last time it was replaced ?

If not its possible old fluid is gummed up with air in it from old use and overheating .

 

It has been a while since the system has been flushed and bled. That is my next step before taking it to the shop later in the week for some other work.

 

You probably just need to flush the system. I have the same 03 V6 Sedan, and when I flushed my brake fluid at the recommended 3 years, it was pretty contaminated. If your brakes have overheated before, I can only imagine what your fluid looks like by now. The fluid is probably boiling after a few stops. The boiling fluid builds pressure, and only makes things worse.

 

Just to update, I have replaced my fluids, regreased all the pins and made sure there was no damage to the lines or parking brake.

That was about a week ago and since then I have had no problems. THe fluid that came out was very dark and my guess is that was the problem, especially since I had overheating issues.

Thanks for the suggestions and help!

 

Great! Hope the problem doesn't come back.

 

Sorry to Hijack!!! but I really need help and cannot post a new thread until 15 days and five post... please forgive... This is a similar issue with my car

I have a Honda Civic 2009 Sports (with sunroof), bought it in 2008 so just shy of 4 years old.

The problem is squeeling brakes, this has been driving me nuts.... need help suggestions.... this all started when all four pads were going out sometime last year in June, so I brought it to a buddy's shop, got all four pads replaced (after market). All is well until my front Honda rotors start to get scratched and marked with groove from these pads, so the mechanic replaced my Honda rotors with also after market rotors, that's when my nightmare started... so all smooth for like a few weeks until my back rotors started to warp so NEW rotors warping soo quick, the mechanic did warranty on those and was all good for about a week... front and back started to get warped so ... requested to replace the pads and rotors this time.... paid extra upgrade to Adelco rotors, with same cheasy pads.... (not my choice... the decision from them and all this happened so quick) so OKAY new Adelco rotors new pads, exactly a week later, I hear this tight low sqeek sound, so I brought it back, the mechanic thinks it's my caliper I said my car is 3.5 years old and the sound is fine when I drive, I think it's the pad, so I said I was going to bite the bullet and get HONDA stock pads, so I paid extra and upgraded and they only got me front pads as they think it was just the front giving problems... less than 40KM/48hrs I hear the front brakes sqealing and scraping my front rotors, brought it in and I had to agree, as the driver side caliper because that was where the scarping was...

Caliper changed and the noise was still there, the mechanic said it will take some time as the reminder particles from the scraping needs to warn down...

I couldn't take it any more so brought it to another mechanic, very detail, as the took me rotors out and measure it to see if it was warped on the edge was slightly warped, they machine it down and the front rotors looks new, used sand paper sand down the pads, as for the back they notice the cheap pads weren't making good contact so that is why it was sqeeling too, so he sand it down but not machine back rotors, so on my way home that night it was peace of mind no noise, next day going to work (I drive to the heart of the city lots of traffic and stop go), the noise started and was worse than every after over 1.5 hour of stuck in traffic..., all of this that happen the first mechanic actually thinks there's something wrong with my braking system and suggested I bring it into the dealer..... the second mechanic said all moving parts are good it's your parts that you are using....

At this point I am tempting but afraid to just bite the bullet and get ORIGINAL HONDA ROTORS and PADS so my nightmare will go away,

PLEASE HELPPPPP!!!!! Thanks a lot for your help and attention...

KK