Rear caliper prob?

[Bada Bing!]

I've had the discs/pads changed on Friday but the rear drivers side outer pad wasn't being pushed onto the disc surface, thankfully the black paint on the EBC discs drew me to it. I took it back to my local mechanic who took the caliper out and knocked the slide in and out a few times, greasing it each time to make sure it wasn't going to jam again.

I got home and the brakes were smoking and the paint was straight off them, I had only driven about 4 miles though! I just drove to my girlfriend's house and the disc is boiling hot now. It was also making a nasty rubbing sound whenever I turned left, but not right or when I pushed the brake pedal.

Any ideas what's wrong?

[robin]

Try releasing the handbrake cable and seeing if the problem "goes away". It might be that the handbrake cable has seized on - it does happen.

Failing that the caliper is sticking on the slides somewhere.

Cheers,
Robin

[robin]

P.S. You might need to wind the piston back in a few turns once you've released the handbrake mechanism - it's a "self adjuster" that ratchets up as the pads wear and you need to return the ratchet by rotating the piston clockwise - there are two holes in the piston face for attaching a rewind tool, but most people use a pair of sturdy long nose pliers to achieve the same thing.

Cheers,
Robin

[Bada Bing!]

That sounds like a good shout mate, could it affect only one side? The passenger side is fine.

[Bada Bing!]

Thanks for the advice Robin. Turned out it was the top slide (the bigger one) that was jammed slightly, probably by bits of the rubbet boots at either end which were mashed. I'll order up some more and get them stuck on. The pin that the pads slide along was all corroded and covered in guff so we scrubbed that too.

The brakes feel amazing now, just need to get the alignment done on Thursday and it'll feel like a new car!