I know my brake has been dragging for a little bit.

But I think its getting worse, and at the moment, I don't have the money to take it in.

I realized the problem was getting bad when I went to spray off all the snow ( Ohio )

of the Fiero.

When I hit the front right tire with some water, steam shot out from underneath the fender.

No good.

I don't have the time to research the problem right now ( Sorry ) and I've never had GREAT

luck with it. So I wanted to get some feedback while I'm gone at work. Anyone have an idea?

They ALL drag some, that's just the way they're made to work. If it's really cold out & you do what you said, most discs will give off a good bit of steam freshly after being driven. They don't have to be TOO hot so as to make that happen. Was the rotor too hot to touch?

Jack the car up so you can spin the wheel. Get in the car and apply the brakes. Get out & spin the wheel. If it spins fairly free, then probably you don't have a problem.

If they really are dragging, then you either need to lube the slide pins and/or may have a brake hose that is collapsing. Typically if the interior of the brake hose is collapsed, you will feel a pretty good pull to the side (away from the one having problems) when you apply the brakes.

[This message has been edited by RTNmsds (edited 01-04-2008).]

Well it is most likely either a bad caliper or a collapsed rubber hose. I would lean towards a collapsed hose personally—that is always my gut on front calipers. Either are rather quick and cheap to replace. Either part should be under $30.

Please get it fixed as fast as possible. Brakes are the most important system in a car.

You'll definitely want to get it fixed as SOON as possible. 9 times out of 10, this is due to a siezing caliper. The only solution is either replacing the caliper or rebuilding it.

The other thing it could be is that it's getting stick on the bolts which it slides back and forth on. If you're careful, you can put some synthetic grease on the bolts and try to work it in there (it'll be tough without removing the caliper).

If it gets REALLY bad, and you don't think you can make it home, you can remove the hose from the caliper and put a bolt with some washers through the opening that would normally attach to the caliper. This will mean that you ONLY have your two rear brakes and one front brake. This is VERY dangerous (obviously), but if you drive slow as crap with your hazards on, you'll at least be able to make it home.

------------------
Todd,
2006 Pontiac Solstice
2004 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible (Wife's Car)
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6 (3.2) 5-Speed
1984 Porsche 944 5-Speed
1981 Pontiac TransAm (Olds 455BB)
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter

quote Originally posted by RTNmsds: They ALL drag some, that's just the way they're made to work. If it's really cold out & you do what you said, most discs will give off a good bit of steam freshly after being driven. They don't have to be TOO hot so as to make that happen. Was the rotor too hot to touch?

I know its dragging because the other tires didn't do it at all, and this one was violent, in lack of better terms.

quote ...you will feel a pretty good pull to the side (away from the one having problems) when you apply the brakes.

I do get a bad pull when I hit the brakes. I think I might try the hose first, since I'll probably be able to do that quick.

Thanks!

you can verify if it's a hose problem by...
jack up the bad wheel,
step on brakes and release.
turn wheel by hand and see how hard it is to turn.
now open the bleeder screw, for a second.

if the hose is bad and holding pressure, when you open the bleeder, it will allow the caliper to rest and now the wheel will turn with normal resistance.

Help!

Not too long ago I was driving the car around the block because I had just finished running a can of seafoam through the engine.

Well as I pulled it into the driveway after the first trip around the block, I got out and opened the trunk, just to make sure there wasn't

any problems. You never know. But as I got back in the car to take it for another trip around the block, I put my foot on the brake, and

there was absolutely nothing there. No pressure whatsoever. So of course, I didn't take it back out. By this time it was dark/raining

and not a single part of me wanted to get down and dirty to figure out what was up. So I shut it off and went inside to chill out since I

was quite pissed seemings how I just got it running good. Well, I went back out about 30-45 minutes later, started it up, and I've got

full brake power again. I checked the reservoir both times, and its completely full. Do you think that the front brake dragging and not

functioning properly might be messing with the whole system? Please help. I haven't started crapping money yet and I can't afford a

huge repair bill. I should be getting my new rubber brake hose tomorrow, so I'll put that on and see if it helps any. FYI, I have not

bled the brakes, disassembled anything, or fiddled with anything.

bill. I think the new hose is coming tomorrow

[This message has been edited by leppy_89 (edited 01-06-2008).]

Sorry I couldn't help you with this, try the new line and change out all the fluid while you are at it, I know my lines were full of crap and when I got mostly new fluid in there, that helped. If you try www.partsamerica.com and look up a front brake caliper for an 87 Fiero you can hit "see what other vehicles this part fits" (says something similar to that) and if there are other cars that use it, you could try a $6.99 junkyard caliper.

I would be willing to venture that it wasnt the case that you had no pressure at the brakes.

If you pulled vacuum lines to put the seafoam in, then its quite likely you pulled the one to the brake booster, and depleted all the available vacuum (which is used to assist brake application). With no assist the pedal would feel like it was right at the floor (very firm feeling as if against the floor).

When all seemed to be well later, it was because you had run the engine with the vacuum line reconnected and had vacuum once again to depress the pedal.

Dragging calipers can be a pain. The brake bleeder screw test mentioned above is a good way to check for brake hose problems, though out of all the times that I've had this problem, it was only the hose once.

The rest of the time it was related to either the caliper slides sticking (take them out, clean thoroghly, relube and install) or
Piston sticky in caliper bore due to dirt/corrosion as a result of never flushing brake fluid. Option here is to rebuild or replace caliper. Both are also cheap, so you are lucky.

Good luck!

Kurt

Dedadee I never seafoamed his car, I seafoamed a honda, and that was the vac line I was going to use to seafoam my car. Jesus I am losing my mind.

[This message has been edited by Mr.PBody (edited 01-07-2008).]