Pulling my hair out.

[GCuzzy]

I have a 2003, 2500 4X4 178,000 miles. Now for the detective work. For the last 7 weeks very intermittently while driving extreme heat and drag occurs from the right rear wheel ONLY. I have not used the parking brake & my mech shop can't find anything wrong or out of place. As far as the caliper they have inspected, cleaned, and lubed the slide bolts caliper twice. The problem still exist. #@$%!. The heat transfers to the wheel & in some cases I can smell it up in the cab while driving. The seals have been inspected & appear to be ok. I have spoken to a few other shops but no one can give me an intelligent answer or suggestion. Has anyone heard of this happening.

 

[ranger 393]

I don't know if this is whats happening, but years ago I had a car that the right front wheel would stick and get hot. I could not see anything that stuck out to me either, then I talked to a mechanic that told me he thought there was something that was internal inside the caliper that was getting hot causing the caliper to apply the brakes on that wheel. I changed the caliper and no more problems. Just a thought..good luck

 

[BLoging]

check the hose too as they can swell shut and not let the brake fluid return for the caliper.

 

[p-Bar]

We have heard of issues with the caliper not releasing . Best thing to do is install a new one and be done with it

 

[RustyJC]

When the rubber brake hose starts to deteriorate, it can have a flap of rubber come loose internally. This flap acts like a check valve and holds pressure on the caliper even after you release the brake pedal. Also, caliper pistons can stick in their bores in addition to the caliper hanging up on the slide bolts. If push comes to shove, I'd go ahead and shotgun the problem by changing the caliper, slide bolts and any rubber brake hoses in the system and call it good.

Rusty

 

[cerberusiam]

No brainer, nothing to think about or investigate, replace the caliper. You will never find the problem unless you tear the caliper apart.

 

[TWebster]

Yup, replace the caliper, flush/bleed the entire system, replace the flex hose, or all of them while you are in there, and be done with it. If there's lots of miles on the other rear caliper, may want to do that too. Nothing worse than brake problems that keep cropping up. Just bite the bullet and do it. and if you are so inclined, the rear wheel seals too. start fresh.

 

[RVTRKN]

It's a long shot, but my 04.5 had an issue with the EB holding my boat and truck on the boat ramps when it was brand new with the EB on. Several trips to the Dodge Dealer, and BS about my boat was too heavy to hold on ramps. The last trip to the Dealer for a weak EB, the Porter brought the truck out after the Mechanic claimed all is OK and loudly said "hey your EB seems to be soft" with the Service Manager standing next to me. The Service Manager had a grimace on his face, then had my truck returned to the Mechanic. They completely disassembled my rear Rotors and drum EB, when they found a stripped adjusting screw that slipped after adjustment. It might be causing the EB to heat up the Calipers?

 

[rashwor]

My guess is brake calipers. I had a sticking rear brake caliper a couple of years ago that was causing a squeak at less than 10 miles per hour after 30 minutes or more driving at highway speeds... yeah, that was weird to me too. Replaced both rear brake calipers and no more problems since.

 

[shorthorn]

When I had my 05, I had issues with the Rear calipers locking up... I replaced calipers only to have it happen again... I replaced both brakelines from the junction block on the rear axle all the way to the caliper and problem went away.

 

[petersonj]

I have a 2003, 2500 4X4 178,000 miles. Now for the detective work. For the last 7 weeks very intermittently while driving extreme heat and drag occurs from the right rear wheel ONLY. Has anyone heard of this happening.

You will need to replace the brake caliper. As mentioned in other posts, it is likely that the caliper is sticking. It doesn't take much because (unlike drum brakes with returns springs) the only forces to move the piston away from the rotor (and only a few thousandths of an inch) after the brake pedal has been released are rotor runout, wheel bearing play, and the memory of the square cut o-ring used as the piston seal. So, it takes very little to cause a caliper to stick or bind.

Interestingly, the same thing happened on my left rear brake at almost the same mileage as yours, and I replaced the caliper. Five thousand miles later the same thing happened to the right rear caliper. In both situations the rotor became quite hot randomly. I gave the right rear caliper a closer inspection and I did notice that there was a small area where some foreign material became imbedded between the seal and the caliper body, possibly putting a bind in the piston.

I still have the original calipers on the front with 249,000 miles on the odometer and no problems.

So, just replace the caliper and you will probably eliminate the problem... and you may want to do the other side at the same time.

- John