I have my sister's 2000 accord LX because she's been having issues with the brakes for a few weeks.

She had them checked and was told that the front left caliper was shot, which it was.

I replaced both calipers and rotors, the front pads; and bled the brakes all the way around.

The brakes felt great and she went on her way.

Now, a week later, she just brought me the car back because the front brakes will randomly stick (I have not been able to duplicate it when driving it myself). She says she'll notice smoke coming from one of the front wheels, both sides at different times, and completely randomly.

As I said, I have not been able to duplicate it while driving it myself, so I'm really not sure what it could be.

Any suggestions?

 

I'm guessing when you say "stick" you mean dragging brakes?

Lift the front end and start the car, throw it in gear and see if the wheels drag, they are suppose to spin freely without hesitation.

These are the usual suspects for dragging brakes, bad brake hoses or bad master cylinder. Since you said both front wheels are dragging it could be the master cyl., have you also check the rear for dragging?

 

Replaced the brakes with what? Re-manufactured ones from AutoZone? Used from Junkyard? New OEM?

If you got re-manufactured from AutoZone I would pull them back out and take a look at them - they can be VERY inconsistent with their re-manufactured products.

If from junkyard I hope you used an OEM rebuild kit on them pre-installation.

If you got new OEM I doubt you'd be having the problem...

Also did you flush out all the brake fluid or just bleed it out a bit? You may want to flush out all the old fluid in favor of some new stuff.

 

Since you cannot recreate the symptom be careful to not rule out a problem with her driving habits. Is she two-footn' it?

As far as the brakes go, do the pads fit loosely in the bridges? They could be expanding as they warm up and sticking in the bridges causing the brakes to drag. A resevoir that doesn't have an air pocket for the fluid to expand can cause brakes to drag as the fluid warms up.

 

Reman from Autozone, both pistons function fine and all pins are cleaned and properly lubed.

Duralast Gold pads that fit fine.

Duralast rotors.

Properly bled and stopping fine for me.

I drove it pretty hard today trying to get something to stick/drag, but no luck.

 

UPDATE:

Drove the car for about a half hour with no issues. My mother says that it would have the issue every time you drove it, but I hadn't been able to experience it myself.

Mom took the car last night to return it to my sister.

She had the cruise set at 60 and hadn't touched the brake pedal in at least ten minutes, when the car began to slow down. She hit the cancel button on the cruise and tried the accelerator. Despite being at 4k rpm, it wanted to slow down. She pulled over and found the front left rotor to be red hot.

So, the brakes are coming on when the brakes aren't even being used.

ABS? or bad booster? Any other ideas?

 

Well if it got that hot, I'd go back for new calipers, pads and a rotor.

Be sure the slides a lubed, phoot already asked about the pad slide (hardware) and if there is an air gap in the master (never saw an answer on those).

Inspect the brake hose.

While at AZ, have them scan for codes.

 

It was doing this before the new calipers, but it probably will need new pads and a rotor again.

Everything is properly lubed, as I did it when I initially changed everything. Everything fits properly, and the MC is filled properly.

Brake hoses appear fine, but if it was the fault of the brake hose, it would happen while braking rather than when driving with the cruise at 60 mph, and most likely happen every time the brakes were applied.

Honda scanned it last week and found no codes.