GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I just replaced my rotors and pads that were less than a year old because my inner pad on the driver side had dragged so bad that it cooked the rotor. I replaced the pads and rotors and had the same problem. I pulled the slider pins for the caliper and greased them up real good. There's a thin coat of silicone lube on the rails for for the pads and they're still dragging on the driver side. I can take the car for a short ride and check the temp of the rims when I park. The driver side rim is almost too hot to touch and the pass. side is cool to the touch. My next move was gonna be replace the caliper but I need to be sure it's the problem before I spend the money. Do these cars have problems with proportioning? I see there are brake lines running everywhere under the hood which blows my mind.

Plugged or collapsed brake line maybe?

What did the piston seals look like when you did the brakes? was anything torn? How about the slide pins? Where they corroded? or nice and bright?It sounds like the caliper is wonky, maybe the piston is corroded and not releasing the way it should... AFA assuring you that the caliper is the problem, we can't, only you can make that call, we aren't there.. But it sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what you are doing... Take it all apart and re-inspect... If you like, take some pics and post them, that way we could at least give a more solid opinion on it.. make help you better in the decision..

The seal around the piston looks good. My slider pins were like new but needed a little lube which I did. I'm confident I can do the work it needs, it's the finding out the source of the problem that I suck at! It's a little strange how the brake lines go all over the place under the hood from right to left and up and down. Makes me wonder how far upstream the problem is. Can calipers be tested? I assume I could check the lines by pulling them from the caliper and applying the brakes to see if anything comes out? I'll get some pics when I tear it down for the 5th time I guess.

you did new pads, so you had to compress the caliper, right... how did that go? Have you tried bleeding the brakes yet? That would tell a lot and you wouldn't have to break the banjo fitting..Are you using brake grease? I like NAPA's "sil-glide" it's a silicone based grease.. (I picture it in my front brake tutorial, here somewhere..lol)I'm sure you are... slider pins and pad brackets lubed up.. It something bent? unlikely... hmm... all you can do is go through them again and make 100% sure something didn't go wrong last time... I know i've done things where I was SURE I did it right, only to find out later I hadn't... not saying this is the case, but it happens.. lol... let us know how it goes... keep the updates comin..

Yeah I used the Sil-Glyde, seems like good stuff. I had no problem seating the piston using a c-clamp. I was so upset with it and then I had to come to work for 2 days so I'll probably go back at it again tomorrow.

I got the old caliper off. One thing I noticed is that when I pulled the brakeline, I didn't get much fluid out of it. I figured that I would get quite a bit of fluid coming out of the line. Is this normal?

Quote, originally posted by Jeremy_K »I got the old caliper off. One thing I noticed is that when I pulled the brakeline, I didn't get much fluid out of it. I figured that I would get quite a bit of fluid coming out of the line. Is this normal?Sometimes, not always... I ask you, when you had the calipers off the first time, did you hang the caliper from the line, or did you sit it on the suspension or hang it from a coat hanger??If you hung it from the line, it could have gotten kinked.. I would have tried opening the bleeder and pumping the brakes to see if you got an amount of fluid.. Again, every car is different, so judging by the amount of fluid that came out of the line is difficult

I swapped out the caliper and bled the system. The pedal seems a little lower but everything is working good now. No more hot, dragging brakes. I may try and bleed them a little better since I like a high firm pedal. Anyone know the proper procedure? I know some cars you need the key on to bleed them etc. I just bled them the old fashioned way starting with the farthest from the MC and working my way around.

I have the exact same problem on the driver's side front (last week). The brakes were grabbing causing a shimmy when driving and a smoking hot rim. I just replaced the caliper (after doing the lube on the sliders to no avail) and I'm going to replace the flex line next as a precaution.A kinked or damaged line can collapse and not return fluid to the MC so the brake stays engaged. I noticed the grabbing when the brakes were hot.I too noticed the peddle drop when I swapped the caliper.I wonder if there is a defect in the hose over time (mine is an 04).Andrew

Did you bleed the system well after you swapped the caliper? That is usually the cause of the low pedal..