Hot Wheels

[Tarby777]

Hi all,

I've not been driving the ST much at all since I got into motorbikes last summer (40th birthday... enough said); it gets a run to the shops or the cinema occasionally... but that's about it. Anyway, I had one of my rare trips out in it last night and at the end of my 6 mile journey, the offside front wheel - the whole thing - was too hot to touch. I poured some water on and clouds of steam came off it!

The brakes had been misbehaving a little during the journey... when they bit, they bit quite sharply and having braked to a halt, when I took off again there was a judder that felt as if they were still grabbing for a moment.

Obvious question: what on earth is going on? Is it a result of the car hardly being used anymore?

TIA

Tarby

[Pyewacket]

Sounds like the brake is jamming on a bit. There has to be some friction for it to get really hot. Take the wheel off and have a look at the caliper and pads. Probably is a result of it being left standing a while, but don't leave it in the hope it will free off, I suppose you could warp the disc if it was left to get hot all the time. I used to have an old Fiat X19 and the caliper jammed on that, got so hot the disc was glowing red in the dark!

[Pantsonfire]

Take the wheel and pads off, clean and exercise each piston by manually pushing it in and using the brake pedal to push it back out.

Lubricate the pistons using a very SMALL amount of grease.

Most importantly, drive very carefully until you are sure your brakes are working properly again.

[Fizz]

As stated above it will probably be a sticky calliper. Common problem on the older celica's.

[Tarby777]

Thanks all. This is the point where I have to admit to being a complete mechanical numpty, and I reckon that playing around with pistons/calipers/pads is beyond me. I did try just jabbing the brake pedal a few times to free it up (as recommended by a friend) but I'm not convinced that it's OK. I did a very short (1 mile) journey last night and I could still feel a bit of warmth when I put my hand to the wheel.

Is this the kind of thing that one of yer drive-in fix-it places (Kwik-fit etc) would be able to handle, or is it a garage job?

TIA

Tarby

[GIDDLEPIN]

Stripping a calliper down is not really difficult but is best left to somebody who knows what they are doing, it sounds like yours may have got a little corrosion through lack of use but even this isn’t as bad as it sounds, usually all that is needed is to strip down, clean off sliders and apply copper grease. The only time it can be expensive is if your pads are fairly well worn and the piston boot has split, the extended piston can corrode then damage the seal when it is retracted.

[Pantsonfire]

Is this the kind of thing that one of yer drive-in fix-it places (Kwik-fit etc) would be able to handle, or is it a garage job?

My experience of KF hasn't been good in the past so I would steer clear of them and take it to an independent garage. It doesn't need to be a Toyota specialist as there is nothing special about the brakes, but you are right to get someone else to do the work if you are not sure about it yourself.

They may recommend a new caliper, in which case it is best to get one from a breaker's yard like TCB - putting a new caliper on one side and keeping an old caliper on the other side might lead to brake imbalance, it's best to have both calipers around the same age.