Am I seized up?

[Dr Firefly]

Wheel not freeing off when I lift off brake (when car up on lifts). Can spin the wheel, and if I do it really hard it will turn for a few revolutions, but it's much much stiffer than the opposite side. Car brakes fine (ie it doesn't pull to either side), but feels oddly spongey on brakes - having to brake harder than normal to stop. Not huge, just keep surprising myself coming up to parked traffic and having to increase the amount of pressure on the brake pedal.

Had a vibration on braking for a few months, but not tracked it down yet.

Have I got a seized caliper? Wouldn't that mean the caliper wouldn't brake at all either and the car would be pulling to one side? Or can you get it kind of seized so the pad will grip when you press the pedal, but won't pull off the disc fully when you release it?

Cheers in advance,
Ian

[maxfield]

The pad pulls off the disc because of the rubber seal in the caliper piston flexes.

So I'm going with seized caliper.

[Jhonno]

seized caliper imo

[Dr Firefly]

What I was thinking. Safe to drive 300 miles with it on? Kind of have to as I'm driving my girlfriend to the airport tomorrow.. Guessing it'll toast the disc and pad, but it'll be safe won't it? Haven't noticed any smoking or anything yet, so hopefully ok.

[stonesie]

Do-able, yes

Safe, probably

Ideal, No

It could be a stuck pad or caliper, hopefully it won't overheat on you before you can get it stripped down and investigated properly, at worst it will cook a pad and take you a little longer to stop but if you keep an eye out for it you should be fine.

[cliffybabe]

Do-able, yes

Safe, probably

Ideal, No

It could be a stuck pad or caliper, hopefully it won't overheat on you before you can get it stripped down and investigated properly, at worst it will cook a pad and take you a little longer to stop but if you keep an eye out for it you should be fine.

direct and to the point

[TRANSPORTER]

Yeah no dramas with that dont forget you still have another 3 braking wheels had a similar thing on the rear brake of my bike stripped and replaced piston seals and fluid and all was fine, was due to corrosion road salt etc and me not really using the rear brake as mch as I should.

[harry_p]

yep, sounds like a sticking calliper to me too. the pressure in the system wil still be able to push the piston out and work the brakes (although not as efficiently as normal) but there's nothing pulling the pads away from the disk when you ease off the brakes, only the tiny amount of flex in certain parts, and probably very slight runout on the disks

therefore the brakes will go on, but stay on.

can also overheat and cause wobbles and vibrations. had it so bad on one car once that i thought the wheel was comming off, had to stop and check the nuts, they were fine but the wheel was almost too hot to touch!

callipers can be refurbed and have new seals fitted, but you may find it works out a lot more cost effective to buy an exchange calliper thats already had the hardwork done. just bolt off, bolt on, bleed the brakes and away you go