Urgent help - Front brake problem?
 

I drove 170 miles on Friday evening with no problem whatsoever, brakes fine all working perfectly.

I then drove 50 miles yesterday (Sunday) at 70 mph or so, and when I got out to fill up with petrol there was a horrid smell of hot brakes which kind of reminded me of the smell you get after being on track and working the brakes very hard. I felt the temperature of the wheels and they were all even, so put it down to something in the air or another car.

Today I went for a short drive around town at a max of 40mph, and when I got out even after only driving 5 miles there was the same smell. I then used the old nose and tracked the problem to the front drivers side wheel. The brake disk was noticeably hotter than the passenger side.

The brakes still work fine, there is no pull in any direction and when not on throttle the car feels the same as usual, so I am not sure what the issue could be.

I need to get this sorted, I am still more than 140 miles from home and in 5 weeks I am driving the car across Spain from north to south.

Could it be a bearing rather than the brakes?

Sticking caliper

Can anything be done to free it up, its been fine up until yesterday.

Wheel bearings were fine at the MOT 4 weeks ago, and the car has only done 420 miles since then, there are no other symptoms like bearing noise and the wheel was not hot just the brake disk which was a lot hotter than the passenger one.

I would say it's definitely not a bearing.

The piston. in the caliper will be corroded, if you can obtain new seals than remove the pistons and carefully clean the rust off them with wet & dry and rebuild. It doesn't always work as it depends on how bad they are corroded.

Easier option is to fit new calipers :-( cost is somewhere in the region of £65 to £80 to £149 each depending on type Link

I would agree - sticking caliper piston. I've had one do the same and only 1 of the four on the same wheel sticking has caused the disk to warp slightly when it's heated up too much and you can feel uneven travel when braking.
When we looked at it on Saturday it was caused by water/crud getting past a piston seal that wasn't on properly and causing the piston to stick.
It's not a very old caliper and we were able to free it off so I've ordered some new discs and pads today which will be fitted on Thursday. We will clean up the caliper and see how it goes.
Got a great price on Pagid OEM discs and pads from ECP as they've got a 30% off sale on over the bank holiday weekend (code holiday30) and the whole lot for the front (2 discs and all front pads) was £108 incl vat and carriage, so not too bad. +++

Let us know what you think of the Pagids, as that's two so far I've heard of where we didn't think they were that great.

Strangely I had a look at what a load of different forums said and they didn't seem to come out too badly, but you've got to remember I'm lucky if I'm doing 4 or 5000 miles a year and due to the low profiles I'm not trying to drive it too fast either so I guess its each to their own. My last ones have been somewhat wasted/ruined by the sticking caliper so I'd have been even more upset if they were mega expensive ones. . . lol

Anyways I will give them a run up to the annual meet soon and let everyone know. It seems the Ferodos have a good name for brake pads but what does everyone else think? Seems to be one of those areas where 10 people will all have a different opinion!

The Pagids worked OK, but just didn't feel they had the 'bite' of the previous ones. But for the price (I got mine on special from ECP too), they were good. The ferodo (DS2500?) always seem to get a good write up.