1999 DOHC Se. I will be doing a front brake job on my son's car this weekend. Had put new pads and rotors about a year ago and they are totally gone. When it was in the shop for another issue, they said the brakes were dragging. I took it home and checked and did not see anything and the brakes were not that hot. Took to a different shop and they saidthey could not find any evidence either. Anyway, they wore down fast and gas mileage is terrible, so I must have some kind of intermittant brake drag issue. I am going to change rotors, pads, calipers, and caliper hoses this weekend. I am also going to change th fluid as best I can. Any suggestions on pretty good pads. I will be going to autozone. I have a credit built up I want to use. The old pads were cheap and made a lot of dust. This should take care of any drag issues unless the master cylinder is bad. The glide pins were greased up on the last brake change, anything elseto cause the brakes to drag?
1999 DOHC Brake advice
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Wagner thermoquiets
Two last questions. My car has discs up front and drums in back. Does this car have the cross fed type brake lines for bleeding purposes? If so, what could be the main cause for the front calipers to drag intermittantly? They seem to have worn down evenly. Back pads look good.
Ed
Ed
I'm not trying to insinuate that this is the cause, but have you considered that it might be your sons driving habits? If the pads were cheap, and he lead footed the hell out of them, I could see them going within a year.
Just a thought.
JW,
No offense taken and if you knew what I have been through with my son that could have been the case LOL. I don't think it applies in this case. I dropped the car off at a transmission shop a month or two ago to get an estimate. They called me and said they test drove it and put it on the rack and could not turn the wheels by hand until they cooled down and then they freed up. They gave me too high a price for the trans so I went and got it and drove it home. When I got home I saw no evidence of dragging, put in neutral in drive way and it rolled easily. Took it to another shop and they could not find anything wrong with the brakes either. I checked the rotors with a infared temp gun against my other vehicles and they were similar. Rotors are not blued and no buring smell. But The car has terrible gas milage and the pads did wear down fast so I think something is going on. I am going to change everything but the master cylinder and see what happens. Thanks
Ed
No offense taken and if you knew what I have been through with my son that could have been the case LOL. I don't think it applies in this case. I dropped the car off at a transmission shop a month or two ago to get an estimate. They called me and said they test drove it and put it on the rack and could not turn the wheels by hand until they cooled down and then they freed up. They gave me too high a price for the trans so I went and got it and drove it home. When I got home I saw no evidence of dragging, put in neutral in drive way and it rolled easily. Took it to another shop and they could not find anything wrong with the brakes either. I checked the rotors with a infared temp gun against my other vehicles and they were similar. Rotors are not blued and no buring smell. But The car has terrible gas milage and the pads did wear down fast so I think something is going on. I am going to change everything but the master cylinder and see what happens. Thanks
Ed
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Clean and adjust the rear drum brakes, mine were way out of adjustment at 113k, if those are out of adjustment, it will cause uneven braking, wearing out the front pads fast. The caliper pins need to be cleaned up, and greesed very well when installing them, but the caliper pistons are probably scored up and sticking sometimes, so replace them with rebuilt ones-cheap parts. I was happy with Napa premium rotors with Adaptive one pads, they did not leave dust after the inital seating/break in. If your son's Taurus has traction control, that will also wear down the pads fast if it kicks in alot.
I may need to adjust the rears. They still look good so they are not getting worked as hard as the front, which is kind of normal. 70% chance of rain today so I may not get much done. I was hoping that if I had a brake issue maybe it would fix my gas mileage. Maybe I just have two problems but I have done everything I can think of to increase gas mileage and have found nothing wrong. Anyway the plan is to change pads, rotors, calipers, and change hoses to calipers, check and adjust rear pads, replace fluid and bleed system. Looks like my weekend is already planned for me. I will report back on anything I find. Thanks all.
Ed
Ed
By the way, what is your gas mileage? Truthfully, the Vulcan is a bit of a pig for the output it gives you. My van needed the rear drums overhauled at 75,000 miles.
I had Raybestos Professional Grade components installed, I'm happy with the functionality.
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Those numbers make sense if your calipers are sticking, like driving with your foot on the brake. You should be getting around 20mpg city. See what happens after the brake job, maybe it's also time for other maint items.
Austex,
I got rained out this weekend, so the plan is to start next Friday I will be off. I have changed or checked everything motor wise on this car. I have a scanner and everything looks good. Had it checked with a professional scanner and all checked out. I sure hope it help with the gas mileage I don't know what else to try.
Ed
I got rained out this weekend, so the plan is to start next Friday I will be off. I have changed or checked everything motor wise on this car. I have a scanner and everything looks good. Had it checked with a professional scanner and all checked out. I sure hope it help with the gas mileage I don't know what else to try.
Ed
After driving the car, stop and put your hand on each of the wheel hubs and see if one is hotter to the touch than the others.
I found a bad rear caliper on my 96 sable that way, even though the slide pins were ok.
Another thing to check is rusted/corroded emergency brake cables.
K8,
I have a laser tempeture gun and checked all four of my vehicles after driving them. They are all within 20-30 degrees of each other. It is still hard for me to believe that the brakes could drag that much and not smell or something. Years ago I had one drag in an old truck I had, and it actually created smoke and caused the seals in the wheel cylinder to melt loosing all fluid and braking. Maybe it is just barely dragging, but I thought disk brakes always touch a little.
Ed
I have a laser tempeture gun and checked all four of my vehicles after driving them. They are all within 20-30 degrees of each other. It is still hard for me to believe that the brakes could drag that much and not smell or something. Years ago I had one drag in an old truck I had, and it actually created smoke and caused the seals in the wheel cylinder to melt loosing all fluid and braking. Maybe it is just barely dragging, but I thought disk brakes always touch a little.
Ed
Finally got my son's brake job done. Replaced pads, rotors, calipers, and hose on the front.I got the Duralast Gold Cmax pads. I went ahead and got the kit so it came with new pins with the rubber boots so everything is new and looks good. So far I like the pads, nice and quiet and good firm braking. I believe the old calipers were bad. I could not make them retract with hand pressure or even prying with a large screwdriver. I could with a c-clamp though. Rear shoes looked good, so I knocked the glaze off and adjusted them a little tighter. I decided to hold onto his car for a while and drive it to work the next couple of days and check gas mileage to see if the brakes were the cause of the bad gas mileage. Thanks to all for your advice.
Ed
Ed
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