Brake smell on Forester

My 02' Forester S has been the best car I ever owned. It now has 45K miles and only been to the shop for regular scheduled maint. Last Saturday I noticed a smell coming from the front right wheel. I also noticed that the wheel was warmer to the touch than the left wheel. Monday morning I took it to the dealer. They checked it and only perfomed brake cleaning, finding nothing amiss. Today I drove it to a

250 mile round trip and the smell was back. It was a highway trip with several traffic light stops and the car drives and brakes as usual. Only there the smell. Has anyone experience this? The brake pads are almost new on all four wheels and original Subaru parts. What could be causing this? TIA!

Ben

Reply to
Cixcos
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possibly split cv boot spraying grease on exhaust.

Carl

1 Lucky Texan

Cixcos wrote:

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Assuming that it *isn't* a CV grease or similar smell, my first suspicion would be a binding caliper. Warmer wheel seems to indicate more friction on that side. Try going for a drive, wait till everything's warmed up and you have a clear road (!) then give your brakes two very sharp stabs as close together as possible. Could help. If not, check that all the front pads have backing shims and that they are installed correctly. My next would be remove front pads, make sure the pistons are fully retracted, reinstall and try again - but remember to work your brake pedal a couple of times before you go driving off anywhere. If none of that works, you could try lubing pistons. So far it's just cost you time. After that it might be caliper service time but AFAIK that's not a really common problem on Subis. Cheers

Reply to
hippo

I've never heard about lubing pistons. Sounds like the seal in the caliper is not letting the piston retract. lift the front and spin the each wheel. If one has more resistance then that one needs a sliding bolt check or rebuilt caliper.

Reply to
marcwert

Reply to
Cixcos

SELF hi five!!

(BTW - your shop shoulda found that when you took it in. I don't care if they were looking at the brakes - they shoulda check other stuff while they were under there)

Carl

1 Lucky Texan

Cixcos wrote:

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

I'll second al that. (Yeah, ok, even the hi 5!) I agree it should have been spotted. Good idea to do an underbonnet check every time you get fuel. Check oil and check out the boots at the same time. They're the closest thing to a PITA weakspot on the Subi drivetrain. Mine Liberty seemed to lose one nearly every time one particular friend borrowed it. I dunno ... maybe he's into shredding and not very ggod with a skateboard, so he used the car instead? Four loans - three cv boots! Glad you found it though. Cheers

Carl

1 Lucky Texan
Reply to
hippo

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