Brakes

[93bizzleYJ]

So I was coming home from work today, and I get 90% of the way home, and while on the highway I notice my jeep is starting to smell like burnt brakes...

So I test out my brakes and see that it is pulling to the left when I press the brake pedal down, then when I come to a stop I can see smoke coming out from the front passenger brake.

I haven't noticed a drop in acceleration as if the brakes were always on, but I have a feeling I just can't notice it because it is only one brake....

Any ideas as to why this is happening?

-Bizzle
93 YJ 4banger

 

[graewulf]

if it pulls to the lleft but the right brakes were smoking sounds like the caliper might be siezed... jack the wheel up and see if the brake engages when you press the pedal.

 

[MudderChuck]

I´ve had small stones get caught between the pad and the disc. I´ve also had the piston get frozen up/packed with mud and dried to cement. The caliper rails (rods) don´t mess up much on the Jeep, but I have seen them assembled wrong, the plastic/Teflon insert gets twisted up.

 

[laneiac]

Its siezed, replace the caliper. They are pretty cheap, same thing happened to my girlfriends yj. Smoking and everything. Changed the caliper and it has been fine ever since. Just be prepared to deal with lots of brake fluid. I hate that stuff.

 

[93bizzleYJ]

well the next day went out to my jeep and tried the brakes, now they all of the sudden work fine. Any chance it was just the rain that got into them and caused all the trouble?

 

[MudderChuck]

Rain usually doesn´t mess with disc brakes much, a couple of seconds of light brakeing, usually dries them right out. Look at the color of the smoking disc, when they overheat they turn a darker color. Could have been a stuck caliper that came unstuck. I´d take the tire off and have a close look, you can see crude packed into the piston of the caliper and/or scoring on the disc fron small stones. If you decide to dig out the mud from around the piston, a shot of WD 40 into the mud helps loosen things up a bit, be careful not to puncture the rubber seal around the piston.
After a romp in the mud, I clean the caliper area real good with a high pressure sprayer. I also pop the drums off and make sure they aren´t full of sand, which will wear down your shoes jiffy quick. And often shoot a shot of grease into all the zirks.

 

[93bizzleYJ]

maybe... it was over a week before and had rained once already before this happened (happened at the end of a big rainstorm from the outskirt of the hurricane) but the strangest thing was that it happened to my roommate bostonjeep the same night 2 hours after it happened to me, same location, just about the same problem, very minor differences in symptoms, but both of ours were fine the next day.

 

[MudderChuck]

You both could have driven through a puddle with oil or diesel floating in it, this will definatley mess with your brakes, for awhile anyway.