Bla$ted $ticking Caliper$

[RustyJC]

Expensive lesson learned - for about the last month, I've noticed that the right front brake wants to lock up first in the rain. Other than that, no pull to the right or anything.



On Wednesday we had to tow our 13,500# 5th wheel through AM rush hour traffic in Houston to get the refrigerator replaced - the trailer brakes are controlled by a Tekonsha Sentinel inertial brake controller. We had been stuck in stop-and-go traffic for miles, and I had just stopped for a red light when my wife said, "That truck in front of us certainly is smoking!" Sure enough, white smoke was rolling up over the right front of the 3500. Well, the truck took off when the light changed - you guessed it - no smoke. I start thinking, "Uh-oh!" The next stop, here comes the white smoke again. I'm watching the gauges and listening for transmission slippage just knowing that I've blown a water hose or a transmission cooler line! Naturally, there was nowhere to pull off until we reached the trailer repair shop about 2 miles later. By this time, I'm reaching for the fire extinguisher as I get out and find the right front brake literally smoking!!



The problem - right front caliper was frozen on the pins (i. e. , wouldn't slide). The result - 2 new calipers, pads and associated hardware. New wheel bearings and grease seals on the right front. Brake system flush to get rid of the "burned" brake fluid. Fortunately, the rotors weren't warped.



An expensive lesson - keep an eye on those blasted front brakes!! I'm sure I won't have this caliper sticking problem on the 2002 since Dodge has certainly fixed it by now, right??



Rusty

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Get Caliper Pins from NAPA

Rusty, you are certainly not the first to have this happen.



Quite awhile ago someone came up with a good yet inexpensive fix. They went to NAPA and got higher quality caliper pins then made his own caliper grease with Antisieze and something else.



I'll do some digging and see if I can bring it to the top. I'm not sure what forum it was but was several months ago.



Vaughn

 

[MikeR]

Rusty,



This happened to us on my wife's '95 CTD the day we bought it (used). We took it out for a long test drive and noticed the steering wheel starting to pull hard when braking. 40 miles later,there was smoke coming up from the right-front wheel. It had got so hot,all the wheel bearing gease was flowing out and practically burning as it touched all the hot metal! I ran into a grocery store and bought a gallon of water to cool it off just to get it back to the dealer. The dealer replaced the calipers with Napa units (at my request)and only repacked the grease,so once I got it home I replaced the bearings and seals.



-Mike

 

[BillGotthelf]

I wrote awhile back to address the problem as I have had it occur on just about every year dodge truck I've owned. I found that if I used anti-seize on the pins and on the caliper slide areas that my front pads lasted twice as long and generated much less heat evan after towing( see tag below). My 96 had the entire front brake system replace twice after pads were shot at 5900 and 4900 miles. After Dodge replace the entire front brakes I tried the antiseize and they lasted 20000 miles.

 

[illflem]

Jim Grant's Tech Tips



96 Dodge Pick-up, Front Brake Lock-up

Q: The front brake on the passenger side of my ‘96 Dodge Pick-up locked up. I replaced the caliper, the brake line and pads still looked good. After a short drive it still feels as if the pads are hitting the rotor and the front wheel gets extremely hot. What’s next?



A: Have you ever had your brake fluid flushed? Read on and you’ll understand the question. I would suggest replacing the flexible rubber brake hose to that brake caliper. Moisture gets into everything, and brake fluid is no exception. Brake fluid absorbs moisture, it’s designed to do this and it is a must for our safety in a vehicle’s braking system. But, moisture/water contains oxygen. Oxygen is needed for us to breathe and the engine to run. In the braking system the contamination of the fluid by this oxygen makes bad things happen. The fluid becomes corrosive and starts damaging the braking system from the inside out. Just one of the many components that can fail to this inside attack are the rubber brake hoses. The inside of the hose will start breaking apart and actually block/restrict the flow of brake fluid. When you step on the brake pedal you easily create hundreds of pounds of pressure. This pressure will push through a restricted brake hose. But when you release the brake not all the pressure is released. It only takes a few pounds of residual pressure to cause a disc brake caliper to drag, resulting in heating. If replacing the brake hose is the fix, I suggest replacing the others, because they have been under attack as well. In our shop we have easy to use test strips and electronic brake fluid testers. You can buy the test strips in a parts store. You’d be surprised how many vehicles are in need of a brake fluid change/flush.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Brake Flush

I flushed my brakes at 30,000 miles, I think that is a good interval. The fluid was already getting rather dark. I ran a quart of fluid through to give it a thorough flush.



I cheat and have an easy way to do it. I bought an electric suction pump from a hospital surplus sale that has a quart jar. I just hook the hose to the nipple, turn on the pump then loosen the nipple. The suction just pulls the fluid right out, and I stand at the reservoir and add fluid if need be. Tighten nipple and go on to the next one. Done in about 5-10 minutes



Vaughn

 

[Steve Campbell]

Vaughn, I want one of those pumps. Short of a hospital sale, where and what exactly am I looking for?