One rear brake overheating

[davidowen66]

I've noticed that as I am braking the offside rear brake is overheating. I first noticed the smell of hot brakes, then on a long downhill slip road where I was braking for a reasonable time I felt the wheels and it was noticeably warmer than the other three. I've read that these cars can suffer from sticking rear brakes and thought that might be the reason. I've checked the brake and it applies and releases fine on both sides off the hand brake, and both sides release fine when you release the foot brake. I know the offside brake applies as it overheats, but I don't know if the nearside brake is applying off the foot brake. If the near side caliper was seized and preventing the brake from coming on would that increase the work that the offside rear brake has to do enough to make it overheat?

Other than that is it possible the the offside brake is operating at a higher pressure than the nearside effectively braking on one back wheel? Maybe through the Abs?

Any ideas appreciated.

[peterzs]

My one did this same wheel, by the time I got to a garage it had killed the disk as well as the pads.

We were up in the Lake District on holiday, so couldnt have a look myself.

In the end it was down to the sliders being corroded, guy said he had to use his big hammer to free them off. But had scored the disk so had to have 2 x disks and pads.

Got new sliders and made sure it was all freed off when I got back home.

Has needed looking at again though, they do have a weak spot. New caliper next time, for me.

[davidowen66]

Yeah I think the nearside caliper must be seized giving the offside all the braking effort. The car seems to stop fine though.

[peterzs]

Its just the hot brake smells that got me, made the mistake of sticking my finger near the disk!!

Bad idea!!

[talkingcars]

My N/S/R was locking on so I've just changed both sides with some spares I had, must be ok as it passed the MOT.

Eurocarparts are good on price for recon calipers.

[davidowen66]

It was the caliper sticking. The pins, rubbers seals etc were perfect, all floating nicely, but the piston was sticking slightly. Cleaned the very minor crud off the piston, removed, cleaned and refitted seals, reassembled and it's OK now. I was surprised however that there didn't seem to be that much drag on the brake, albeit more than the opposite side, but it was enough to overheat it.

[R8NMG]

Just had 2 new rear calipers, brake disks and pads replaced this week. The near side rear brake was not working properly and the pad was not sweeping the disk fully as corrosion sits on the disks. Reduced my MPG from 30 to 25. The calipers are a weak point.

[ZS180V6]

I had the same issues
My rear brakes were sticking
In the end I had a grinding sound

I decided to change all of the callipers so bought a full set including all bolts from a car breakers on eBay

I then changed all of the callipers at the same time.

I found one rear brake pad was completely worn on one side.

I changed all the rear pads and the problem has now gone away.

It was cheaper to do this instead of a referb

[mattyprice4004]

It doesn't take much sticking to cause a lot of heat on a run - I found this out in my old 620ti (the same caliper design).
Mine was the sliders sticking, but while it was all apart I cleaned up the minor corrosion on the piston too.