Front rims hot to the touch

Hello. First I want to say that I really enjoy reading this Blazer forum, very interesting and educational. I’ve owned 2 4x4 blazers so far (1983 and 1993).

3 months ago I purchased a 1995 Blazer LT, 4x4, v6, 4.3 Vortec, VIN “W”, 131000 miles on it.

I love doing small mechanic jobs to my truck and 3 weeks ago I replaced the front brake pads (because they were giving me the sign that means that it’s time to change them) and I did it at home. I used a C-Clamp to push the cylinder all the way in to make room for the new pads. I didn’t bleed the system as I didn’t open any connection fitting.

This past weekend I noticed a strange odor in the front tires, more noticeable in the left side. I touched the rim and it was hot, but not burning. I then touched the rotor and that’s when I realized it was hot. Bad mistake, I burned my finger.

On Sunday I lifted the truck with a jack and had difficult turning the tire by hand. So, I removed the tire, and the caliper and I also removed the brake hose. I removed the caliper cylinder and I noticed the brake fluid very dirty, even with small pieces of junk like mud ore something. I thought that the hose should be clogged, so I took a thin hard wire and introduced it inside the hose. I used hot water to remove all the dirt that was inside. I also cleaned the inside of the caliper and replaced the o-ring and the dust cover. I cleaned with sand paper the cylinder and I lubricated everything and put it back. This time I did bleed the front left side to remove the air trapped in the caliper chamber.

2 days after that, I still notice the rim and rotor hot to touch.
I lifted the truck again and this time it’s not that difficult to turn the tire by hand. But I can still hear some friction when turning the tire.

What could be the problem ?
Any help is appreciated.

I’m thinking that the caliper is defective or something happened to it when I pushed back the first time with the C-Clamp.
I found on oreilly’s web site that the caliper is not that expensive.
Should I replace the caliper and brake hose ?

Sorry for this long tread, but I’m really lost on this.

Thanks
:frown:

welcome snuzzie, i only read upto where you used a c clamp and didn't open the bleeder, because that is wrong, on anything with abs, it is procedure to pop open the bleeder and push the fluid onto the ground, no one ever beleves me, ive argued this with people b4, so not to sound like a dick, but; im certified in break repair, have over 50 hours just in a class room learning about break systems and abs systems (40 of the 50 was abs) so please trust me, the job was done wrong and the callipers may be fubar, and if the front wheels are hot to the touch, the pads are contacting the roter causing friction, which, causes heat, lots of it, but remember, even under normal breaking conditions, you can still feel some heat off the break parts, it takes a lot of force between metal/ceramic/organic materieal to stop a 3k and some lb vehical from 70mph

dmbrisket 51:
thanks for the quick reply. I knew I was going to find good answers here.
So, what do you mean by "callipers may be fubar" ?
Are both damaged ?

I just came back from lunch in my truck, I only drove around 10 miles round trip and the left wheel is very hot. This time I didn't touch the rotor.
The weather is hot down here (84 as of 3:00 pm)

thanks again.

dmbrisket 51:
I found what "fubar" means. :rolleyes:
Time to go to oreilly and get new calipers.

thanks