954chris

Because my car lurches from side to side when getting on/off the power in a straight line it was suggested on here that my brake calipers may be sticking. I've had all the wheels in the air and they seem to spin freely by hand, although the rears not as freely as the front, which i thought may be drag from the differential.

Just took the car for a fairly spirited 30 mile drive and on return the rear wheels are too hot to hold my hand against for more than a couple of seconds, the fronts are warm but nowhere near as hot as the rears. Thats got to be a sign of the rear brakes dragging/sticking yes??

unclefester

Yep.

It's either the caliper pistons or the slider bolts that have stuck. You may also find the pad guides / rattle shims have caked up and the pads are no longer free to move.

954chris

Cheers, looks like a day with wire brushes, copperslip and brake cleaner tomorrow then

unclefester

Plenty of threads / guides on here about what to do and what not to do

954chris

Thanks for the advice. I spent some time the other day stripping, cleaning and regreasing the rear brakes, had a quick test drive and the car felt much much better. Decided today that i ought to do the fronts as well, offside was fine but nearside had a completely seized pin Anyway, took the carrier off, applied some heat and got the rusty pin out, cleaned it all up with some fine wet and dry, superglued the rubber boot and got it all back together nicely moving on fresh grease. Need to find a new rubber boot that i'll fit when i change the pads in a few thousand miles.

unclefester

It's one of those jobs I do twice a year, usually before fitting winter wheels and again when i take them off to fit the summer ones. They require regular maintenance.

954chris

I'll be sure to do it regularly then, it's a pretty quick and straightforward job really. The split in the rubber boot certainly hasn't helped matters, it was a real rusty mess in there!

unclefester

Yep - you can pick the boots up cheap enough, a long rotary wire brush is ideal for cleaning the crud out of the carriers. Don't forget that the carrier pins are NOT the same top and bottom - if you put them in the wrong way around, they are even more prone to sticking.

On the fronts, it's bevelled pin at the bottom of the carrier and on the rears, it's the top. Basically the leading pin in the forward rotational direction is the bevelled one.

954chris

I picked that up from the threads you pointed me in the direction of, easiest thing i found was to just remove/clean/grease/replace one pin at a time, you can't go wrong then