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Daily driver... brakes binding?

Robertb

Well-known member
Joined
1 Sep 2003
Messages
8,406
Not a performance car by any stretch, but hope I can tap into the knowledge of this esteemed collective.

I have an '04 3.0 X5, and I think the front o/s brake is binding- the wheel is hot to touch compared to the others, disc is too hot to touch, and the brakes judder after a high speed run. Acceleration is glacial, even by its usual, umm, leisurely standards...

The question is, is it normal for brake discs to be slightly warm to the touch after a normal drive? I'm wondering if its just the one caliper that's knackered, or if they are all binding slightly.

TIA.
 
If one front wheel is hotter than the other then you have a problem.

MC
 
Thanks... I'm sure the one brake is binding as the disc is too hot to touch, but the question is whether its normal for all the other discs to be slightly warm, albeit the same warmth if that makes sense.
 
Yes, they will get warm, that is where all the energy goes when braking.

MC
 
As MC says, it is normal for all the brakes and wheels to get hot but if one is hotter than the others there will an issue somewhere, it could be a warped disc or the caliper piston is sticking, new disc or a caliper refurb (seals) should cure the issue once you know what the issue is.
 
Cheers chaps, will have the front brake checked out.
 
Deffo a problem with the caliper sticking. I went through this pain with my daughter's Mini One R50 which are notorious for it :pc:

What was strange was you could jack the car up and rotate the wheel without any binding even after applying the brakes on/off but take it for a run and you could boil water on the disc.

The annoying thing was being on the back you could drive it and not notice it binding but when the new pads on that wheel wore out to the rivets after 5k miles and scored the disc you realise there's a problem.

Rather than mess about trying to fix the caliper I got an exchange one off eBay for £30 :thumb:

Here's the pleace I got mine and not sure if these will fit yours but look cheap enough and high a wide range of stock :dont know: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PAIR-OF-F...865090?hash=item4ae550e9c2:g:cqkAAOSwWTRWxMZP
 
Thanks for the link- I took it to the garage today, they found the caliper pistons were corroded and are fitting a new non OE one. The good news is that the disc and pads are OK. Hopefully that will sort it, we'll see. Should pay for itself with extra MPG!

The mechanic made the good point that there doesn't need to be much contact with the disc to cause a problem as initially you'll hardly feel it, but after a few moments at higher speeds the disc heats up, expands and binds more.
 
OK, just to close this off, the car is transformed by its new calliper! 5% more MPG, sails up hills and no juddery rumbly noises.

Hurrah.

If only all fixes were so comparatively cheap, simple and transformative.
 

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