Help with brakes PLEASE!

[ManifestOne]

Ok I am having problems with my back brakes, they keep locking up on me. I can be just driving on the road and they will lock up. So i took it to a dealership and they told me to replace the calibers. So i did that and all the other things like replace the pads. And it still does it. I was on my way home and when it did it again so I stop right next to a Brake Check. And they looked at it and said that all my work looked good and they didnt know what was causing it. So is there anyone here that could help?

PLEASE HELP!!!!!

[ricebike]

maybe check/ grease the sliding pins? how were they when you disconnected the caliper & regreased them?

parking brake cable? hopefully they're on the right notch on the caliper...

if the rotors are starting to turn blue & your pads are getting glazed over, u gotta take em off and sand em up again...

another guess is the proportioning valve in the master cylinder is acting up... it allows the rears to grab 1st up to a certain pressure b4 the front calipers...

[yellow_jacket]

Is the pedal very close to the floor when you are stopping?Did you turn the rotors when you did the brakes?

[Silvia2b]

I was curious did you get it figured out yet? I was having a similiar problem after Nissan "adjusted" my e-brake during a regular service. I'm still trying to get them to fix it.

[180fan]

ebrake = 10mm socket w/ extension right on the ebrake. Tighten to make the ebrake stiffer, stock count should be about 8-10 clicks before it gets very difficult to click it more.

If you're lookin for the brake pedal adjustment, i think you can adjust it by turning the rod that comes out from the brake master cylinder onto your brake pedal. You can use some slip joint pliers to do this, just don't sqeeze too hard.

For the guy with the locked up brakes, what else do you have on your car? ABS or how much free play do you have in your brake pedal, do you know if your brake master clyinder or brake booster for that matter are in working order? Just some extra ideas.

[Silvia2b]

O.k. so my problem was that after Nissan "adjusted" my E-brake, they just tightened the cable too far, I think the e-brake didn't work at all. they calimed it was problalby a bad cable. the next day I noticed one rotor on the drivers side was blue from heat. they tightend the cable so far that one of the calipers had the ratchet pulled past it's limit an locked. I put new rotors on within the next week and I checked under the car, inside the console to see the actual lever and ratcheing mechanism. I then re attatched the cable, because it looked fine, and I moved the lever back to it's normal position and externally it looks fine and seems to operate. but will not hold the weight of the car or slow the car down when it is applied while moving even slowly and the cable didn't seem to be stretched or anything. So I took it back to Nissan about 2000 miles later. Then claimed it was the calipers and quoted like $800.00 to fix it. It worked before they adjusted it. Now it doesn't and they cause the calipers to fail I believe. I bought some remanufactured calipers by Bendix, at Napa for $130, w/ $80 core charge I'm going to put one on tonight and do the other in the morning, bleed the sytem after flushing out all the dirty fluid and refill and try to see if that fixes it. Anybody have other suggestions to consider while doing the install?

[super_hicas]

Is the pedal very close to the floor when you are stopping?Did you turn the rotors when you did the brakes?

is there something i can buy to turn my rotors at home? i dont want to pay a shop to do just that cause i do my brakes at home. what do i need if possible?

[574-240sx]

Quote »O.k. so my problem was that after Nissan "adjusted" my E-brake, they just tightened the cable too far, I think the e-brake didn't work at all. they calimed it was problalby a bad cable. the next day I noticed one rotor on the drivers side was blue from heat. they tightend the cable so far that one of the calipers had the ratchet pulled past it's limit an locked. I put new rotors on within the next week and I checked under the car, inside the console to see the actual lever and ratcheing mechanism. I then re attatched the cable, because it looked fine, and I moved the lever back to it's normal position and externally it looks fine and seems to operate. but will not hold the weight of the car or slow the car down when it is applied while moving even slowly and the cable didn't seem to be stretched or anything.[/quote]

I'm having the exact same problem. I tightened the cable to far and it kept locking my caliper up. I looked at the e-brake cable and i'm in the process of ordering the cable now. Hopefully that will be the fix. But i think my caliper went bad somehow. The calipers have 174K on them. Nick

[DAEDALUS]

is there something i can buy to turn my rotors at home? i dont want to pay a shop to do just that cause i do my brakes at home. what do i need if possible?

Short answer: No. Long answer: The factory specification on the rotors is that they be VERY flat, maybe to within .001-.002" across both faces, and perpendicular to the bearing/hub. Considering that a sheet of paper is .0035" thick, it's easy to see that turning the rotors requires a pretty precise machine. They normally sell for several thousand dollars and up, depending on features, speed, accuracy, etc. The fact that you can get a decent (maybe not factory spec) job done at Pep Boys for $8/rotor is impressive.

[Silvia2b]

o.k. here is the deal. I got both the e-brakes working fine w/ no locking, now that both the calipers are brand new. Pads new and rotors turned like new. I should have just done this in the beginnning. Any questions?