2000 Jeep Wrangler front disk brakes remain engaged

2000 Jeep Wrangler Sport =96 37K on the odometer, serviced regularly, extremely clean and very well cared for. I bought the Jeep in 2004 when it had 32K on the odometer so I put about 1K on it per year. I have put most of my 1K on it so far this year so I have driven it for a while.

Both front disk brakes remain engaged to the point where they will get hot and you can smell a hot brake pad (I have been around race cars so I know the smell of hot brakes). Rear brakes seem OK. The brakes were fine yesterday. The Jeep was used today to tow a 1000 pound small float for about 15 minutes on flat land in a parade. I noticed the brakes =91dragged=92 after I dropped off the float (I did not drive the Jeep in the parade). I tested the brakes by coasting and noticed that the Jeep would come to a stop before it should. Me thinking that if I go about 20 MPH and stomp on the brakes would fix it did not go so well. I think that idea made my front brake problems worse.

What has happened to my front brakes and what is the solution?

Many thanks!

Reply to
JeePenn
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That sounds like a problem with the master cylinder or the front calipers. Since it sits as much as it does, you may have crud built up in the fluid that you can flush out with a good reverse flush - it likely could stand flushing anyway. You might also have some rust or crud buildup in the calipers. On thing to try is to take a big (6" or so) C-clamp and completely compress the calipers and then re-seat them by several applications of the pedal. You want them to use the full travel so that the entire piston and cylinder get scrubbed.

I think you still have rear drums (all the Jeeps I work on are approaching antique status ;)) but even if they are discs, do the rear brakes also drag? If yes then suspect the master cylinder. If not, concentrate on the front calipers. You don't say what part of the world you are in, but rust on the slide pins will also cause them to stick and drag.

Reply to
Will Honea
2000 Jeep Wrangler Sport ? 37K on the odometer, serviced regularly, extremely clean and very well cared for. I bought the Jeep in 2004 when it had 32K on the odometer so I put about 1K on it per year. I have put most of my 1K on it so far this year so I have driven it for a while.

Both front disk brakes remain engaged to the point where they will get hot and you can smell a hot brake pad (I have been around race cars so I know the smell of hot brakes). Rear brakes seem OK. The brakes were fine yesterday. The Jeep was used today to tow a 1000 pound small float for about 15 minutes on flat land in a parade. I noticed the brakes ?dragged? after I dropped off the float (I did not drive the Jeep in the parade). I tested the brakes by coasting and noticed that the Jeep would come to a stop before it should. Me thinking that if I go about 20 MPH and stomp on the brakes would fix it did not go so well. I think that idea made my front brake problems worse.

What has happened to my front brakes and what is the solution?

Many thanks!

Reply to
L.W.(Bill) Hughes III

Your low mileage per year leads to thinking about corrosion issues. A few questions:

-are you sure that the brake drag is equal on both sides? That would be fairly uncommon unless you have a master cylinder or proportioning valve problem.

-see if you can figure out which rotor (if any) is getting hotter. Use one of the nifty non contact thermometers if you have one

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use a spray bottle of water, see how fast it evaporates-take a look at the rotors: are the inside and outside both shiny? If the outside is shiny and the inside is rusty, you have stuck caliper pins. Remove/replace/clean/lube the pins-if the inside of the rotors are really rusty, you may need to replace them to get good brakes back. I do NOT recommend turning them.-Check the fluid in the reservoir. If it is not almost water white, consider flushing the brake lines, that would certainly help clean out the proportioning valve and the backflow valve in the master cylinder.

JeePenn wrote:

Reply to
RoyJ

Update to my problem:

I obviously did not drive the jeep that day after I experienced this problem. I drove the jeep the next morning and the brakes worked great. No drag on either of the front rotors. I drove it down the road and applied the brakes with my hands off the wheel and it braked straight as an arrow. So after the brakes cooled down, the brakes worked perfectly. The older gent that was driving it in the parade must have ridden the brakes the entire parade and something got really hot. Any ideas as to what got so hot that it caused the front brakes to drag that bad? To answer a previous post, both front brakes dragged. It wasn=92t just one of them. The brakes dragged so bad that the jeep would not coast.

Reply to
JeePenn

Yep. Too much heat and you can cause the brake fluid to boil in the caliper. That's why the big race cars have air ducts to help keep the caliper and brakes cool. When the fluid cools down the gas goes back to a liquid.

Reply to
DougW

Oh, you should have the system bled, that fluid won't be in spec anymore. Run the piston back to make sure most of the bad fluid gets out, you can't get it all, but a little bit won't matter.

Reply to
DougW

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