Knackered Brakes

H

hotdog3147

Member
Evening,

On the way home from work today I decided to give my car a quick spray off due to how much salt has been deposited on the roads lately. Anyway, as I was doing so I noticed that the front nearside brake disc was covered in a fine layer of rust (the car had been parked up for approx 10 days due to not being able to drive in the snow). A quick drive round the carpark to try and get rid and the disc was still soaking wet after driving round twice with my left foot on the brake. All other discs had dried and were nice and warm.

Drove home and tried heavy braking a few times and didn't really feel it pulling in any direction but it didn't seem to stop as sharply as normal. Got home and it looks as if the pads had been touching the disc on a few occassions but not fully as they hadn't removed the rust at all, just a few spots that had cleared.

My intital thoughts were a warped disc, but that's usually due to excess heat off a stuck on caliper, so now I'm thinking that the caliper piston is either blocked (due to standing in the cold and the salt) and needs cleaned (hope it's this option) or the caliper needs replaced.

Anyone got any thoughts?
 
Have you tried a few 'hard' stops to see if it will release the calliper in the meantime.

Surface oxidisation is perfectly normal on steel discs exposed to the elements. Mine start to go orange after about a day.
 
Yeah, slammed on a few times (after checking rear view mirror) to the point that the ABS was kicking in. The inner of the discs (between the faces) is rusting too, more than usual I think. When I think about it, there was a slight pulsing through the brake pedal yesterday when I came off the motorway, but I attributed this to the ABS and little bit of ice, might have been cos of the disc. It was only for a second or so and not the usual noticable pulsing when the ABS kicks in.

If the weather wasn't so bad outside and dark, I'd have took the wheel off and had a proper look. I'm hopeful it's just a case of cleaning out the components and new rotors and pads aren't needed.
 
Sorted, both nearside pads had a build up of salt and muck between the pads and the disc which was causing the problem. Quick clean up and everything is back to normal, thank god.
 
On the way home from work today I decided to give my car a quick spray off due to how much salt has been deposited on the roads lately. Anyway, as I was doing so I noticed that the front nearside brake disc was covered in a fine layer of rust (the car had been parked up for approx 10 days due to not being able to drive in the snow). A quick drive round the carpark to try and get rid and the disc was still soaking wet after driving round twice with my left foot on the brake. All other discs had dried and were nice and warm.
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Forget the rust. You don't need to clean it off and it will not cause any problems. All disks have rust - more or less according to the season. The pad will wear it off with normal driving. Forget warped disk. If they were warped you would feel a front end wobble every time you touched the brake. While on the subject of a wobbling front end, if it wobbles when you are NOT touching the brake, it means you have thrown one or more of the lead balancing weights off your wheels. Those are those lead things stuck in between the rim on your wheel and the bead on your tire. If that happens, go have a spin balance on both front tires.

PS. Warped disks are most often the result of buying crappy disks in the first place. And they are never worth turning. When thinner, they just warp faster.
 
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