Overhaulin' brakes...

[dtpoirot]

Howdy all,

Just recently picked up a '01 v6 and have been battling with the Check Engine Light. Finally got that all squared away.


I replaced the brake pads all around and started getting a burning smell. At first I thought it was the brake fluid which had overflowed when I compressed the calipers (and turned in the rear's). A quick scrub under the hood at the car wash cleared that away.

The left front caliper was dragging. I could barely turn the wheel. The right front is tight but goes about 10 or 20 degrees after a mighty shove.

I replaced the master cylinder and the left front caliper was still tight so figured it was toasted and changed it as well.


LONG way to the question...

How tight should the wheels be once the master cylinder and calipers are right? It takes a good bit of effort to spin the wheels now.

Thanks!

 

[MustangLX-5.0]

It shouldn't be so tight as to where you have to really muscle it to rotate the wheel. Normally, you should be able to give the wheel a good shove with minor effort and it should at least spin 4 complete turns, or more... but no less. I mean, if you give it a hard shove and it spins really fast make s a complete revolution but slows down so fast that it barely makes 3 turns, then something is sticking. ALso, when you spin the wheels, it's normal to hear a small bit of light metallic scuffing noise. The brake pads will have around 4 - 7 psi of pressure on the rotors at all times. It wont's wear on them. It's just so they don't suddenly grab and cause the car to lurch forward. Newer vehicles have remedied this and gone with a free spinning wheel . Not sure how..

Make sure the caliper slide pins have a fresh batch of caliper grease swabbed on them. Otherwise they may stick and cause one side of the pad to rub too hard. If you replaced the caliper/s , did you bleed the brakes properly?

 

[dtpoirot]

A weekend of thrashing the beast has resulted in the pads settling in...

Thanks for the info!

...and no, I haven't bled the brakes properly. I never feel like I am quite done.

Anyone have an opinion on the 'one-man' bleeders? I have used the Mighty-Vac and "hose in the jar" method in the past.