ok.. heres what happened... I am on the freeway on my way home late night... doing 65mph all of a sudden car starts pulling to the left... then i feel like the car is braking... it starts to pull harder... so i pull over... really have to pull on the stearing wheel to get it to the right shoulder... get out of the car... driver front rotor... is GLOWING RED!! never seen this before.. I mean Steal glowing like that... it was all other wheels were fine.. after it cooled down.. wheel was completly locked up..

so.. i get it towed home.. which was a pain cause a flat bed couldnt get it up...

so.. next day i pull the wheel off.. guess what... wheel turns.. not locked up.. not taken any chances so I replace the caliper with a new one.. set of new pads.. new rotor..! get if all back together...

take it for a spin... braking is fine.. BUT!

that wheel is making a ton of grinding noices..!! sounds horrible.. like the wheel is gonna fall off or something..

wheel bearing?
maybe a balljoint got messed up?
or maybe it was the caliper locking up again?

did a search for similar stuff.. found out about the brake lines colapsing.. so i will replace that too..

really hope its not the wheel bearing!! $180... really dont want to spend that...

what other damage could that heat have caused.. should i replace the master cyl?
thanks in advance

 

If it was that hot you may have burned up all of the grease in the bearing which means the bearing is probably toast. The good news is your master cylinder is probably OK.

 

Very interesting. I'd like to see what ends up beeing the cause.

 

This sounds strange...

I doubt it's a ball joint. They would not do this if they were failing. If they were weak, the front might feel a little weak, and you would get some clicking at times. Mostly when you pulled out from a stop.

Testing the bearing is easy. Jack it up and wiggle the wheel. 9 and 3 o'clock test the tierod ends. 12 and 6 test the bearing. There should be no more then a millimeter or 2 deflection. More than that... eh. Now... there is a chance that all the heat from the rotor entered the bearing and damaged it. Plus, the lock up...

I am thinking you should get a rotor, too. Glowing hot is one thing... but welding a pad to the rotor... damn. That should transfer all sorts of crap. It could also hot spot and damage the rotor.

What I would do, remove the caliper, and put the wheel back on with a lug or 2, and spin it. This will help find the noise source. It could be rotor/pad rubbing.... but at the very least, you will be able to elminate the bearing.

180.00 for a front wheel bearing??? Thats non-ABS prices! What year?

 

Bogus he said that he bought pads, rotor, and caliper! If it was that hot the bearing probably lost its lube. However, the caliper may be binding so lifting the front and performing a little trouble shooting is a good idea!

 

thanks for the info guys... i knew the bearing was gonna be bad...

Bogus its a 85

wish me luck i will keep you posted!!

 

If you haven't already, replace the brake hoses. They may be the reason it locked up in the first place. The hoses deteriorate from the inside and will become blocked to where the higher pressure of applying the brakes will get fluid past the blockage but the fluid is then trapped in the caliper which keeps the brake applied.
Also, replace that bearing and make sure it didn't sieze up and was turning on the spindle shaft, ruining it as well.

 

duh. that's why I shouldn't post when tuckered out... sorry...

It's the bearing...

 

Slight chance it might be a collapsed brake hose. Since they are not expensive, I would replace it.

 

I still can not imagine how the caliper could even glow without blocking the rotor at any speed. It would be intresting to see pictures of the caliper, rotor and speccially pads.
To make metal glow red it should be really hot and I would think that a lot of components must wrap when cooling down.
There is a manufacturing process called spin welding, and it seems that it was this what happended.

 

happens all the time

 

The heat might have damaged the bearing. RED hot rotor is VERY hot

 

I agree the wheel bearing was probably "cooked" by the heat.

My first thought when I read this is the "primary cup" in the master cylinder is not returning to its correct postion behind the "relief" port -- the main cause of this is someone lengthens/extends the rod in the power brake booster too far, but could be caused by something rubbing on the brake pedal assembly and not letting it return.
But, I would expect this to affect more than just one wheel -- I would think it would have cooked all the brakes.

I guess it is possible that the wheel bearing came apart and the wheel "cocked" in a position where the rotor was in constant contact with the pads in the caliper causing the problem.

Tom Piper

 

My money's on the bearing, too. Check the parking brake caliper, too, though. I had one seize up on me and it caused the exact same problem as you.

 

While we're on the subject of wheel bearings, anybody ever use these? http://www.wheelbearingsinc.com/