front brakes dragging

I can barely rotate either front tire. The left caliper was sticking. replaced it. right caliper is ok. I loosen the line to each wheel, one at a time. Let out 2-3 drops. Wheels now turn freely. What is wrong?

 

You have a problem with your brakes!





With that little information, anything said would be pure speculation. Let's start with year, make, model, and mileage. Any other brake work done recently? Accidents? Lifted?

 

Ok. Thank you for your patience. I thought my info was viewable. 2006 Tacoma Pre runner TRD 4.0 200,000. No brake work no accidents no lift. Shaking and steering wheel above 35 mph MUCH worse when braking. I had the rotors re surfaced and new pads. Was only good for 2 days.
The outboard pistons on the left were sticking. I replaced it. Need more info?

 

Did you verify the run-out on the disks after re-installation? Do you mean you replaced the whole caliper (OEM, re-man, or after-market?) or re-built it and replaced the pistons?

When you brake fairly firmly, as in, not a panic-stop, but harder than coming to a stoplight, do you feel the truck pulling to either side? Can you lock up all four wheels?

 

stops straight. Vibrations and shaking to bad for a firm brake attempt. re-man caliper. When raised both front wheels can hardly be turned.

 

Have to sign off. Will check back in the morning. Thank you.

 

Does your Truck have those Evil ABS brakes if so it might be the very expensive valve body is Fubar.!!

From your info something is not allowing pressure to release from your calipers as soon as you release pressure manually the caliper pistons retract free movement of tires.

Hit anything that could have crushed a steel line or rubber hose twisted or kinked ?

Pistons push out under pressure when the pressure is released they in theory retract .

Sometimes each application of the pedal gets them tighter and tighter to the truck no longer moves .

 

it definitely sounds like your calipers are not releasing but the vibration leads me to believe something else is going also. first thought would be warped rotors but you said they were turned(hopefully correctly and not too thin). maybe check front suspension links and components for something that's loose causing your vibrations.

 

When the front brakes bind like that its for 2 reasons, You have a stuck caliper piston, or the caliper needs to be cleaned of rust where the pads slide in.

 

I think you're going to need to approach this methodically. Get the front end up on jackstands, and see if repeated brake applications makes the problem worse, or if it only gets to a certain point and then gets no worse. Check your brake line pressure at each caliper (you'll need to make a rig for this, pressure-gauge, brake line fitting, should cost <$20) and check your brake line pressure on each side; assuming it's equal and within spec, then the problem is in your calipers, and even though one is new, new parts have come out of the box bad before... if there is a problem with the pressure (out of spec, unequal side to side), then you need to keep working back to the mastery cylinder.

There's no ABS light, nor any DTCs in the system are there?

 

rubber lines also get soft and collapse causing a check-valve type situation where the pressure is held in the line and wont release the caliper

 

All lines and hoses ok. No ABS light or DTC's. Will try the 1 pump at a time test. Thank you all.

 

Just because they look okay externally means nothing; they can collapse leading to a 'non-return valve' type of effect (which seems very likely) based on what you've said.

 

Security error? Once more thank you all. Problem solved. Replaced sticking caliper. Bled In X pattern. Key on, no air. Returned DEFECTIVE pads. They cut grooves in the rotors making much vibration. Resurfaced rotor's again. Got ceramic pads. Drove 100 miles town and interstate. No vibration. Stops smooth, straight and no vibration. Thank ya'll for all of your help. I hope that I can be of help someday.

 

Glad it's sorted and thanks for the update.

 

glad you got it sorted out. You've already helped by updating your post with results. Too many folks ask questions about a problem but never update what they found out and how it was fixed.