Brake pads dragging

[tylerk]

Hi, I have a 2002 lexus is300 that i just replaced the rear brakes on. I replaced the rotors, calipers and pads. I bled the brakes good, and one of the pads is still dragging pretty bad, does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this? I was thinking the rubber hoses that go to the calipers may need to be replaced as well. Thanks!

[MagicRat]

Whenever this has happened to me, it's always been a defective caliper.

Typically, these calipers are rebuilt, which is usually fine. But if they were not done right or were too rusty inside, they will not retract fully after a brake application and drag.

Take the dragging caliper off and take it back to the parts store and demand another one at no charge.

Chances are, since this problem only started when the caliper was replaced, the fault lies there, and your brake line is actually okay.

[shorod]

When you say "one of the pads is still dragging" are you indicating that only one of the four rear pads is dragging, and it was dragging before you did the work?

If it is just one pad of the 4 (half of a caliper) then you probably have some brake hardware that is dry and not allowing the caliper to float like it should. It should be able to float to distribute force between the inner and outer pad. With new calipers, you probably at least inspected the slide pins or whatever hardware allows the caliper to float. Hopefully you cleaned and lubricated the sliding mechanism as well.

If you mean one side of the rear brakes (inner and outer pads) are dragging, and they were before you started the work, then I would suspect, as you have, that the brake hose has collapsed and is acting as a 1-way valve. If that's the case, you should really consider replacing the brake hoses at all four corners of the car, then flushing all the old brake fluid and replacing with new. That is a routine maintenance task anyway. Your car no doubt has anti-lock brakes, you don't want old, moist, contaminated fluid corroding the small valves and mechanicals of the expensive ABS pump, or worse yet, the brakes failing to work when you REALLY need them.

-Rod

[Mavrick14]

If your problem is a flex hose, then I would recommend only changing the one, if the rest are OK then they'll more than likely be OK for a long time. To check if your flex hose is causing your dragging problem, apply the brakes to get your caliper to drag, and then open the bleeder. If the drag is gone, then the hose is the culprit. If the drag is still there, then its a caliper/hardware problem.