Car is a 1998 Fiesta Si 1.25.
Background is that 3 days ago, I changed the brake pads, as one had just worn down to the backing plate (I know I should've changed it sooner).
I took the wheels off, the discs are in fairly good condition, quite shiny and quite smooth, some life left. I followed Haynes instructions, everything seemed to go fine, old brake pads out and new ones in. Job done I thought.
I did not notice any problems until today. The car felt slightly slower than usual, noticed that with my foot down on a DC I was stuck at about 65 and there was no more power. Hmm I thought. Stopped to pick up a mate, smelt a horrible smell, opened bonnet looking for this smell but couldn't find it. Assumed it wasn't coming from the car.
On the way back, stopping at traffic lights, loads of smoke starts rising from nearside. Pull over, get out and there's plenty of white smoke rising from the wheel, and that horrible smell is back. No fire. The whole wheel is baking hot.
I take the wheel off, try moving the rotor by hand and it's stuck. There's also a 'shadow' of a brake pad on the rotor presumably where it got stuck. I let it cool down, drive the little way home and take the wheel off again, this time though the rotor does rotate freely.
The other wheel is fine, does not get hot at all, and I can't see any difference between the two. I did everything the same way to both wheels. I tried taking it all apart and starting again, pushing the piston right back and putting the pads in again etc, but it's still getting hot when driving?
If it's of any relevance... of all the old pads I changed, 3 had around 1mm of material left. The 4th that was worn to the backing plate, was the outer pad on the same wheel that's got the problem now. It looks like it's the new outer pad that's getting extremely hot, judging by the heat around that area
- the copper grease burning off on the back of that pad.
So, does anyone know what might be causing this? After Googling I'm starting to think that maybe there's a problem with the caliper on that wheel because of the fact it looks like the brake pad got stuck on and the last brake pad in that wheel also got worn down a little more than the rest? If this is the case then it's beyond my ability to fix, how much would a garage charge roughly?
Thanks
BTW I am going to have a proper look in the daylight tomorrow and if anyone thinks pics would help them help me, I can get some. Thanks for reading this, was rather long.