stanglvr38

So I lowered my car recently and when I took the front caliper off, it had 4 rubber rings inside of them. Two of them were beasiclly ripped. Is this bad? This applies to BOTH of the front calipers.

Another problem is that I can't spin both of the front wheels freely when the car is in the air. Are the brakes dragging? Again, this applies to both of the front wheels.

On a side note, I've been getting about 120 miles to the tank. I know it wasn't bad gas as I have now gone through 3 full tanks getting just about 120 to the tank. I've been taking it easy on the pedal too. Could this be a result of the brakes dragging?

I just changed the fuel filter with no improvement. Car has 30k ish miles on it too.

On a side note, I found this deserted road with a bunch of sharp turns and what not. So I was there for about 15 mins and driving the car pretty hard. When I was at WOT, the car just turned off. How could this be? The engine temp gauge was right in the middle and not at the "hot" level.

stanglvr38

Also, I have no CEL and have reset the ECU already.

Jazzer The Cat

Cannot speak to why your car shut down, but your wheels should spin pretty freely when up in the air. There maybe an issue with wheel bearings, as if the brakes were rubbing this bad, they would turn to mush after 10~15 minutes of driving.

Take your car out for a 10 minute drive with minimal brake usage and lick your finger and touch your front rotors. They should not be hot, unless you just broke VERY hard prior to testing this way. I really doubt the brakes are an issue in this way, but you NEED to make sure! If bearings are too tight or somthing, then the area around the bearings would be VERY hot. I have not tested this area prior, but cannot imagine it as more than warm.

As for the rubber boots around the pots (pistons of calipers), they are best to be intact. They keep water/dust exposure to a minimum/zero and can cause seal failure upon new pad installation if you don't have them COMPLETLEY clean when pushing the pots back into calipers.

Jazzer

Demonhead

Your wheels shouldn't spin freely. Your brake pads are always in contact with your rotors. You should be able to turn your wheel with your hand but it's normal that its not spinning on its own.

LilRoush

I think the term 'freely' means grab the wheel and spin... it will go for awhile.


I've seen a couple of calipers go bad, and lock down on the disc. If it is that, it's the source of your poor MPG.

Also, if you are having brake issues, I'd avoid going WOT around sharp corners on backroads. Seems like a good way to die.

Jazzer The Cat

^ exactomundo on my meaning of "freely"

If a caliper is sticking, the car will pull like a dog to that side of road and promptly pull BACK to the opposite side when you apply the brakes, due to heat-soak. If BOTH fronts are sticking, they would have to be EXACTLY the same amount, or it would STILL pull to the worst side.

Extremely doubtful that this is a braking issue.

Jazzer

stanglvr38

Well if i grab the wheel and spin it, it will not spin for a while. It will stop as soon as i let go.

72MachOne99GT

Umm... If your pads were always ON the rotor, your mileage, brake life, braking distance, etc would be a joke.

Cornbread52

You could try compressing the caliper and putting it all back together. If it still won't spin easily, your bearings are probably bad.

Demonhead

A good way to tell if your brakes are putting too much pressure on your rotors is just looking at your rotors. If it looks burnt there is a good chance that it is dragging.