Brake Job fail - Right rear rotor hot/dragging

[cwildman]

I just did a complete brake job on my 2004 X5 3.0. I followed the excellent instructions by hayaku at: http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/...e-job-diy.html

I installed new Raybestos pads and rotors on all 4 tires and new sensors.

While installing the rear rotors we did notice that the parking brake seemed to be rubbing against the inner drum of the rotor as it didn't slip right on. It required some pushing to get it all the way on. My more experienced partner suggested that some parking brakes have automatic adjusters when you reverse, so the parking brake may back off some then.

I drove the car a little after the job was done and didn't notice anything unusual, then it sat for a day. Today I got on the freeway and was feeling some vibrations, I wasn't sure if they were the road or not. After getting out of the car I smelled a brake burning smell which I expect is usual. I visually inspected all 4 rotors and noticed the right rear rotor had a scorched purple look to it. Attached is a picture showing the coloring, notice it is not on the pad surface but the outer drum.

At this point I drove the car immediately home on side streets. I could now feel very strong vibration/dragging when driving 20mph. This caused be to stop a few times to make sure it wasn't getting worse. Interestingly the problem seemed to go away at low speeds after driving for some time. I also tried backing up an entire block.

My assumption is at this point that the parking brake is dragging on the rotor, it did seem that the parking brake pads needed to compress when I removed the rotor again just now. As well there seems to be a lot of shavings around the entire assembly from the brake rubbing the inside of the rotor.

1. My plan is to follow the instructions on adjusting the parking brake, do you guys agree?

2. Does it make sense that only the right rear would be grabbing more than the left rear?

3. Is this rotor still usable or is that dangerous?

4. Do my parking brake pads look thick enough or is the pad so worn off that it is rubbing metal on metal?

Thanks for your help.

[IanP]

Make sure the heat from the brake has not damaged the wheel bearing or melted the grease in there

[JCL]

1) Yes, adjust the parking brake, but make sure you are doing it at the wheel, and not at the cable end at the handbrake lever inside.

2) If it was tighter originally, then yes. Check them both.

3) As long as it runs true it should be fine IMO. If it isn't running true, then replace it.

4) Hard to tell with all the brake dust. As long as the friction material is contacting the drum, and not the metal backing, it should be fine. It is only used to hold the vehicle, not to brake it when in motion. If the pad material is really thin then replace the shoes. It appears that there is enough material there that the chamfer is still evident at the ends of the friction material, that is why I think they are likely OK (but check thickness everywhere around the circumference).

Note for future: Automatic brake shoe adjusters (found on other cars, not on this one) do work in reverse, but they only tighten up the brakes, they don't back them off. When doing brakes it is important to ensure the shoes are adjusted properly.

Jeff

[cwildman]

thanks for the replies.

so I backed the parking brake shoes all the way off with the adjuster and then tightened them back 10 notches so they were intentionally lose. the parking brake wouldn't keep my car from rolling with it just sitting in the driveway.

I drove the car on the freeway and everything seemed normal, back right hub wasn't getting hot.

Then I went ahead and started tightening the adjusters to the point where the car would hold in my driveway at about 6 clicks of the hand brake. At this point both parking brakes had been turned about 21 notches (11 additional from the first).

I drove the car and things seemed fine. However when I got on the freeway and braked down from 65mph sure enough I started getting vibrations and grabbing on that back right. So it was grabbing bad again while I drove along at 20-25 mph however once I braked to a complete stop again it got better. When I finally got home sure enough that rotor was extremely hot again. To me this implies its related to the brake pads and not the parking brake shoe? Things looked fine when I took the rotor off today. The lube on the wingtips was gone, could that be a problem?

Either way Im gonna try backing off that right rear parking brake again in the morning to see if that makes it go away again. So frustrated at this point.

[bnw]

It's not all that uncommon for caliper pistons to freeze in their bore after bottoming out for new pad installation. You may need to replace the caliper.

[Denis0331]

i had the same problem with the front brakes what i ended up doing is listening to the guys here and changing the front lines which i got from awesome ebay for cheap now flushed the brake fluid and replaced the lines and it works good now

[cwildman]

Thanks for your replies guys.

This morning I backed the parking brake shoes off more on both sides and it drove fine again.

This leads me to believe that there is too much slack in the cable to the hand brake? Thats why it took me having the shoes really tight just to get it to grab at 6 clicks. Does this make sense? It could've been the case that my parking brake wasn't grabbing before, I never really tested. Got the car 2 years from private seller.