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1998 Dakota 2WD. The brakes are sticking to the point of smoking (front) after driving 5 miles or so.
The Master cylinder has been replace 2x since I’ve owned it (2 years).
The brake pedal is firm.
How does one determine if it’s the front calipers are sticking or it’s the master cylinder sticking ?
TIA
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Loosen the brakelines from the caliper. If the brakes still hangs, it´s the calipers. If they stick before you loosen them but not after, it ´s the master cylinder.
Try compressing the caliper piston by prying the piston away from the back of the pad. Make sure you are inserting a small pry bar (or flat head screw driver) between the piston and the back of the pad. If the piston moves back into the caliper then the caliper is able to work properly. At that point, you will have ruled out the caliper. Time to check the slide pins for excessive corrosion/lack of lube (silicone paste). If you should find corrosion on the pin, use a wire wheel to remove the rust.
Also, make sure the flex hose is not kinked or twisted.
Thanks for all the good tips. I’ll check it out soon.
Also, “if” the Master cylinder was the culprit, would the rear brakes be hanging as well the front brakes ?
[quote=”Labrat0116″ post=172202]Thanks for all the good tips. I’ll check it out soon.
Also, “if” the Master cylinder was the culprit, would the rear brakes be hanging as well the front brakes ?[/quote]
Brakes can also hang up if the pads cannot move freely (due to lack of lubrication-Copper Anti Seize) in the brackets.
Let’s try to keep it simple by leaving the master cylinder out of the equation until you have checked the usual culprits.
Make sure your pads have all the appropriate hardware and return springs if your vehicle requires them.
Check the floating pins the the caliper bolts into.guy’s if you just blead the brakes it will tell you if you have a clog in the system….
it will tell you everything before the claper… like if the master is bad or the abs , brake booster, lines…. it will tell you if you have a clogg in any of those… and it probly will be a good idea to blead the brakes any ways… you should do it like every 3 years any ways….
now it will not tell you if what it is in the claiper system, like pads, shimes, boots, pins… that you will have to take each one off one by one and check it… the rotors should give you an idea of what it is and what side is effected so while your bleading them do an visual inspection,,, you should be able to find it easy… look on the inside and out side of themIt is not at all uncommon for hoses to flake inside and cause a one way valve effect. Hoses are cheap, the car is old. Just replace them and report back with the results. As Rob correctly advises, flush the brakes every few years. Replacing the hoses affords the opportunity to flush the brakes in the bargain.
Put hoses on it.
[quote=”MBDiagMan” post=172245]It is not at all uncommon for hoses to flake inside and cause a one way valve effect. Hoses are cheap, the car is old. Just replace them and report back with the results. As Rob correctly advises, flush the brakes every few years. Replacing the hoses affords the opportunity to flush the brakes in the bargain.
Put hoses on it.[/quote]
Intresting…. I have never delt with that before…. have you seen that yourself alot… uselly I would first see the ouside of the hose starting to fall apart… then I uselly replace them all because if one is bad.. not soon after the others are going to start to go bad…. but have never delt with them acting as a check valve… in thery it makes sense but I personally have never delt with it…. uselly I find the cylinder in the caliper got dirt from the broken boot… causing it to seize now when it opens pushing on the brake its easyer for it to move because of the force but when returning is when it has a harder time resisting causeing it to stay pressing aginst the brakesI have seen a flaky brake hose do this maybe a half dozen times. Since the OP has tried master cylinders to no avail, hoses are cheap and replacing them on an older car is not a bad idea anyway. If it were mine, I might have replaced them from the get go when checking the calipers. That’s been my experience.
[quote=”MBDiagMan” post=172245]It is not at all uncommon for hoses to flake inside and cause a one way valve effect. Hoses are cheap, the car is old. Just replace them and report back with the results. As Rob correctly advises, flush the brakes every few years. Replacing the hoses affords the opportunity to flush the brakes in the bargain.
Put hoses on it.[/quote]I’ll do that soon. BTW, the brakes where bled recently…. within the past 100 miles or so.
This is a my yard truck that rarely gets driven anymore. Hopefully, I’ll find the time soon to dig into this.
The rotors/pads are all in very good condition. As are the rear shoes and drums.
[quote=”Labrat0116″ post=172314][quote=”MBDiagMan” post=172245]It is not at all uncommon for hoses to flake inside and cause a one way valve effect. Hoses are cheap, the car is old. Just replace them and report back with the results. As Rob correctly advises, flush the brakes every few years. Replacing the hoses affords the opportunity to flush the brakes in the bargain.
Put hoses on it.[/quote]I’ll do that soon. BTW, the brakes where bled recently…. within the past 100 miles or so.
This is a my yard truck that rarely gets driven anymore. Hopefully, I’ll find the time soon to dig into this.
The rotors/pads are all in very good condition. As are the rear shoes and drums.[/quote]
I was saying useing bleading of brakes as a diagnotic procedure… to check the master and other brake parts in the system for any clog lines…
master cylinder is all machanical…. so that is a way to test it and its ports by trying the bleed the system… it will very quickly tell you where the problem is at if you have a clog lineAnd don’t stop at simply bleeding. Buy a quart of fluid and FLUSH the system thoroughly. If you will do this every two years on most any car, your chances of having hydraulic brake problems go way down.
Good news, Bad news.
Good news.
I pulled all the caliper pins and they were badly corroded. I replaced them with new ones and lubed them as well.
I inspected the hoses and all the caliper hardware. All appeared to look ok and operate as intended.
Fired the truck up and the pedal “felt” normal once again….. for about (2) minutes that is.
Now the Bad news.
When I was pumping the brakes, at one point the brake felt and bit firm, I pushed (not overly hard) and all the sudden the pedal went to the floor.
Further inspection revealed a blown brake line.
The metal line going to the RF Caliper blew out. It blew out right next to the steering coupling. Right between the left exhaust manifold and the left A-frame.
Oh Joy…….
The BEST news is that the brake line blew out while the truck was in my driveway and I was not out driving it
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