Driver side brake dragging?

I never had any issues with the brakes. About 4 months ago I put 1.5" spidertrax wheel spacers on. About 2 months ago I had my drivers side brake start dragging on the way home from work. It was smoking and hot as hell. I got home and pulled the wheel and the pads, I greased the pins, checked the plungers, all seemed good. Its winter here in CO so I figured road grime, salt, and corrosion caused the pad to bind up. All was well for another 2 months. We just had a snowstorm here in CO and its all melting so the roads are all wet and slushy and crap. It started to drag a little on the way home, I had no time to look at it but did pressure wash it off real quick. Early this morning it got real bad, it was 0430 and I pulled over to see my driver side front rotor glowing like a Formula 1 car. I went quickly in reverse to jam on the brakes and hopefully free it up. I was less then a mile from work at this point so took it easy to the parking lot and parked it. But it did seem to stop dragging a little. My question is if I have a bad brake booster or master cylinder wouldn't it be all my brakes? not just the one? Only reason I can think is that the wheel spacers are "exposing" my calipers and pads more causing accelerated issues. Just figured I would ask for advise before throwing $ and time at this issue. Thanks

 

Of course.

However, I've never seen a bad booster or master cause brakes to drag.

Booster failure typically produces a very difficult pedal feel, as you loose pedal assist. It will be even harder than 'manual' brakes.

Master failure creates almost no pedal feel, ie pedal drops to floor, no braking power. Rapid 'pumping' may build a bit of pressure early in the failure, but it won't work for long.

 

I agree. I think the issue is isolated to that particular caliper. My pedal feels completely normal.

 

You need calipers. Do both sides. And if the rotor got that hot you'll need rotors and pads too. It's not all that uncommon on toyota trucks. I've put calipers on several of them i've owned over the years and I actually do flush my brake fluid every 2-3 years. Many don't and the fluid absorbs water over time leading to rust, which leads to sticky calipers.

 

I am going to tear it apart today. The calipers are not stock. I upgraded to Tundra calipers at about 20,000 miles, truck has 70,000 on it now. I might look into just doing a rebuild on them. As I had them powder coated black so don't want to replace.

 

Single piston? Should be an easy enough rebuild.

Can you link me to this 'Tundra upgrade' though? I'm kinda new here and don't think I've stumbled across that yet.

Is this a 6 lug only deal?

 

4 pistons. I found it over on a 4Runner forum. Same deal still. Not sure on the 6 lug question.

 

Thanks for the link.

Yep, it's a 6 lug deal. By that I mean it's not just a caliper upgrade, the rotor is needed as part of the process. And the rotors (as pictured) are for 6 lug vehicles.

Wouldn't work for those of us with 5 lug setups.

Oh well.