When I arrived home from work I smelled something hot and after feeling around the truck I found my drivers side rear wheel to be the culprit. The rim was extremely hot as was the breaks and tire. After about 20 min you still could not touch the rotor. I looked it over and nothing looks out of whack (I did not take the tire off and look at it just from under the truck). Anyone have any idea what the problem could be??

Your help is much appreciated.
John

 

I had the same problem with my 03 last week. The rear caliper was seized I needed to replace the caliper and the pads. Rotor was fine. It could also be a hung parking break shoe or wheel bearing.
Good luck
Topper

 

Ordered calipers for mine the other day......same thing on the pass rear. Compressed the caliper ( very hard) and hit the brakes again - stuck - loosened the bleeder and still stuck - needed calipers. Should be in, just waiting on my "economic stimulus" check to be able to pay for them! Try the steps just as I did, if the brakes free up when the bleeder is open, then you may very well have a collapsed hose. Otherwise, I'd bet on calipers......seems to be getting popular!

 

Check the guides on the calipers, sometimes they get stuck from corrosion, mine did. If they are, don't even try to clean them, just go out and get new ones. They should move super freely and the least amount of drag can cause them to stick. Might save you some money.

 

All,
Thanks for the replys. If it is a caliper how car can I drive with before I replace it? I will call the *********** tomorrow but I can not get parts for 3 days. I have to drive about 200 miles in the time frame. I am assuming it would be a bad idea. Should I take the caliper off, clean it, lube it and re-install?

Thanks,
John

 

Take it apart. Even though your truck sees alot of snow/salt, unless the piston rubber boots are cracked or torn, the pistons should not be froze up. More likely the caliper guides are seized up. You can free them up and clean them up with some sandpaper, then grease or anti seize them. New ones would be best, they're cheap, and use some anti seize. (Light coat though, don't want any making it's way onto the rotors/pads.)

 

Check parts stores for reman calipers. They are showing up at reasonable prices now. Replace in pairs and bleed brake fluid out, not push back into MC. For that matter, replace brake fluid.