rear brake job = smoking brakes

[eliterit]

so , i just put on a set of wagner thermo quiets in the rear,, but i didnt bother to resurface them because o'reilly's said they're a little too thin and they refused to do them. anyway,, i put them on , bled the whole system and when i drive it about 2 miles, i see smoke coming from my rear tire and my rotor is glowing RED!!

I've never seen a brake job go so wrong like this and i'm not new at doing brakes. I'm thinking since the pads I had on before were metal to metal that the e-brake needs to be adjusted now? (it engages a LOT lower now)

Usually when i do brakes in the rear i pull up on the e-brake a couple of times to get pressure in the line,, maybe i did this a little too much?

Well, now the rotors are probably warped and i'll have to end up getting new rotors anyway.

Has this happened to anyone?

[93anthracite]

explain again why you use the E-brake when bleeding. That makes no sense to me. When you're putting the rears in, just rotate the rear piston back to its primary setting, put the pads on and tighten everything down. Bleed it if you feel its necessary. At no time should your E-brake come into play.

In terms of warping rotors, this is simply a myth. A warped rotor has an uneven layer of brake pad on it somewhere, giving you vibration under braking. You should be able to wear this off of the rotor, but I can't guarantee anything.

[ricebike]

"e-brake needs to be adjusted now? (it engages a LOT lower now)"

my guess: u have put that ebrake cable to the wrong part of the caliper's parking brake cable lever?? causing it to engage a LOT lower now...

since it smoked (on both rears) wheel chocked the front wheels,don't engage the ebrake, lift car & take off rear wheels, recheck where the ebrake cable is sitting in the parking brake lever...

u may have glazed the new pads: take em apart, sand the surfaces to de-glaze (or return under warranty & get new pads),

take BOTH sliding caliper pins & clean/regrease them,

check out the rotor surfaces... blue? gamble on reusing them or just get new ones. sand them down to de-glaze the surfaces like the pads...

hmm, always good to bleed/flush old brake fluid out...(guess that'll be overkill)

[eliterit]

I did not use the e-brake to bleed the brakes. I used the brake pedal. The bleeding part of it was fine, i had absolutely no issues with that. But usually when you do a brake job in the rear, since you push the piston of the caliper back in to give the beefier pads room, you have to pull the e-brake up so that the piston can tighten the pads onto the rotor.

I did not touch the cable to the caliper, there is no need to since I just replaced the pads and used the same calipers.

What i think happened is that when I was pulling up the e-brake firmly a couple of times, i may have given too much force and the rotating piston tightened too much and now cant rotate back?????

is this possible or maybe the calipers are shot??

I've done rear brakes that are the same style on my sentra and I had asolutely no issues such as this,, it's not that complicated.

Anyway, thanks for the tips and help, i guess i'll just have to see what i can adjust and if not i may get rebuilt calipers, brembo rotors and pads...

[Altiman94]

U dont have to pull the ebrake up. just drive the car normally and they will compres themselves back on to the pads. Just be careful when you first use them bc they wont be touching the pads yet. Stay off the ebrake

[ricebike]

... But usually when you do a brake job in the rear, since you push the piston of the caliper back in to give the beefier pads room, you have to pull the e-brake up so that the piston can tighten the pads onto the rotor.

What i think happened is that when I was pulling up the e-brake firmly a couple of times, i may have given too much force and the rotating piston tightened too much and now cant rotate back?????

is this possible or maybe the calipers are shot??

hmm, u mean after reassembly, u get in the car, step on the brake, then pull the parking brake handle?

that's possible, but did u take both caliper pins, clean, & relube them? take it apart again & try to turn the caliper piston to be sure it can turn... as well as de-glaze your pads/ rotors...

side note: i had a d/s seized up on me... rust on the piston & was hard to turn back in; effect was the brake pads was on the rotor all the time & started to overheat on that side. Nuthin like seeing smoke comin from the rear tire...

[4cefed]

Was the caliper hard to bolt back on? I had the same problem, only less fire. One of the caliper slide pins was frozen solid. Make sure they are all loose and apply lots of anti-seize.

[eliterit]

Was the caliper hard to bolt back on? I had the same problem, only less fire. One of the caliper slide pins was frozen solid. Make sure they are all loose and apply lots of anti-seize.

thats just it, none of the slider pins were frozen at all, they moved freely and werent leaking, so i figured i didnt need to mess with them. The pistons went back in just fine as well.

thats what has me stumped

still havent had a chance to look at it though, but when i do , i'll let ya'll know how it went

[IvoryJ30t]

oh, and next time dont touch the e-brake. it has nothing to do with the hydraulic system.

you want to pump the brake pedal first to make the pads contact the rotors PRIOR to operating the parking brake.

[Darius]

That happened to me once where my caliper seized up and got extremely hot (glowing). It got so hot that it actually heated the wheel enough to pop the center cap out of my wheel. Anyways, I'd look into buying a new caliper or rebuilding your current one because it sounds like it's not returning to position after you apply the brakes.