GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I just had the pads and rotors replaced on my '05 Vibe and now it smells like its burning ..I can;t locate the smell from either the left or right front, except that its just under the hood ... I think I may have had this problem last time I replaced the brakes too, but not sure ... is it possible that this is normal?

This is just a guess. The master cyl lid has to come off to back the piston into the caliper. If fluid was added as the pads wore and the level went down, then possibly some fluid has spilled from the reservoir and is now eating on things and evaporating with the heat. This would take a pretty careless technician but I can imagine it happening.

Sounds to me like one of the pads may be stuck.. I couldn't say why, unless they didn't use the correct pads or didn't lube things up as they went in... I can't say how confident with tools and such you are, but going through the brakes is really easier than you might think... I have a tutorial on it.. shows everything needed.. Depending on how you are braking and such, you could be just heating the brakes to the point of "burn-in" or pad bedding.. Pad bedding is where you do a series of relatively hard stops.. This heats the pads to a critical temperature that burns off the resins they use to hold together the friction material for manufacturing.. a good thing overall.. This also has a very distinct acrid smell to it.. as to burning clutches (uses similar friction material) It's hard to say... Now, if the master cylinder over-flowed, it's going to strip the paint in most of the spots it touched.. not good, most wouldn't do this.. and unless they added fluid, prior to doing the brakes, there should be enough fluid TO overflow..

yeah worst case scenario, it could be the master cylinder ceased and is holding the pad(s) to the rotor. so as you're driving, the brake is still 'applied'it smells like burning cinders...good luck