Front right wheel heating up

Hi guys! I haven't posted in a long time. Problem: The front right (passenger) wheel heats up after my 2002 Escort SE is driven for a long time in hot weather. The other 3 wheels are fine. It takes maybe an hour or two at 55mph before this happens. The only clue I have, is that when this happens I can hear something rubbing when I just barely touch the brake pedal (when the wheel has heated up). It's hard to check the problem out, because I almost never drive the car for over about a half hour from home. However I did take a 200 mile trip this past weekend, and I checked the wheel once after a couple of hours, and it definately was too warm (or hot). I took it to a garage today, and they didn't find anything wrong with it. (I don't know exactly what they did to check it). Oh, the tire is NOT underinflated, and the car does NOT pull or drift to the right. In fact, it tends to drift slightly to the left. Could anyone give me some suggestions what might be causing this heating problem?
Thanks much, guys!
yahoo1

I forgot to mention that I DIDN'T smell anything burning, even tho' I had to drive for a couple of hours with a warm (or hot) wheel.
Thanks again.

Sounds like a brake is dragging a little.

Thanks for your post, Tumbleweed! Can I get any other possibilities?
yahoo1

Next time it warms up feel the rotor.

Next time it warms up feel the rotor.

My health won't permit me to climb under the car Tumbleweed (I'm 76), and even if I could I'm not sure that I'd know which part the rotor is. (I do know that it's part of the front brakes.)
Thanks for posting!!!

Could be master cylinder piston not returning correctly or a restricted brake line or hose on the RF wheel. It shouldn't make any noise when lightly braking. I suspect the caliper is sticking and should be lubricated with a high temerature lubricant for brakes.
If you haven't had brakes for 50k or more now would be a good time to replace the pads and turn the rotors.

Here's my take on the problem. Brake fluid is hygroscopic (absorbs moisture from the air) and the combo of water and brake fluid in the system causes brake lines to rust and hoses to rot/swell from the inside out, once this starts to happen it's common for the engine heat to cause an already swollen brake hose to swell shut after everything gets up to temp, trapping fluid which (since there is water in the mix and since water expands with heat) causes the caliper to expand thus causing drag. Since in the early to mid-stages this particular problem needs heat soak to soften the hose and to cause the water present in the brake fluid to expand for it to swell shut, it's a hard to diagnose problem (until it swells completely shut causing severe brake drag and possible wheel bearing damage, that is). When things go past this point you can get little pieces of rubber that break off of the rubber brake hoses or rust from the steel lines throughout the brake system and may need a complete brake job with calipers/hoses and sometimes even steel lines and master cylinder needing to be replaced. What am I getting at, you ask? Replace the brake hose and flush the system. If that remedies the problem, replace the rest because they aren't far behind.
Also, NEVER touch any brake rotors (big shiny round thing) or drums after the car has been driven until they have a chance to fully cool. Those things get very very hot and will remove fingerprints for life.

Welcome to AF!

You are right about the brake fluid getting moisture into it. A few years ago I had a Honda with a hydraulic clutch. One winter it got so cold the moisture in the fluid froze up and I had to bleed the clutch and put new brake fluid in the system. Thanks for the information. It will go into archives until someone researches it. You know your way around cars, and I hope you post again, soon.

Thank you very, very much Bob, Dave, and Tumbleweed for your suggestions! It just might turn out that one of them will be the solution to this annoying problem. Best wishes to all of you.
yahoo1

One other thing that will cause the wheel to get hot besides the brakes not releasing is a bad or dry wheel bearing. I've actually seen a dry wheel bearing make it so hot it would smoke. If a mechanic checked it out he should have checked the wheel bearings. I'd ask.

One other thing that will cause the wheel to get hot besides the brakes not releasing is a bad or dry wheel bearing. I've actually seen a dry wheel bearing make it so hot it would smoke. If a mechanic checked it out he should have checked the wheel bearings. I'd ask.

Thanks Fordman!!!! Much obliged!
regards,
yahoo1

Just wondering if you had found out what the problem was yet or not. Please keep us informed.

Just wondering if you had found out what the problem was yet or not. Please keep us informed.

Hi Fordman! Well, here's the "scoop"--- I just spent $319.68 (including 8% tax), about two hours ago on the brakes. For that I got two (2) Calipers and brake pads. The bill's out in the car so I don't know what else they installed, if anything. The garage owner told me that the rt. front caliper was BLUE, so he claims that I was right about the wheel over-heating. You might find it interesting that he suggested that I spend over $600, but I "nixed" that idea. He wanted to install brake hoses, and also new rotors, I think, for the $600 plus amount. So anyway, I haven't had a chance to drive the car very far yet, to see if it's OK now. We'll know more later. I did ask the garage owner if the brakes will work ok if I take a 200 mile trip today, and he said absolutely. I sure hope the guy knows what he's talking about. Oh, one more thing---I noticed that the brake pedal is a bit lower than it used to be, but the brakes seem to stop fine.

Sounds good hope it took care of your problem.

That's steep for calipers and pads. An extra $300 is steep too considering rotors are $30 ea and brake hoses are $35 for both fronts. Anyway, hope it's fine now. When it comes to brakes though...Don't skimp, you take yours and others lives in you're hands.

This is what my neighbor paid 6 months ago when I was out of town and couldn't do the work for her.
Front brake caliper and pads $60 ea
Brake hoses $17 ea
Front rotors $27 ea
Labor $159
Total $367

I don't want to say you got ripped off but.....

I have a 94 and a 92 Escort LX, and the brake calipers may be different from yours, but on mine the calipers have a pair of sliding pins to let the two halves of the caliper move together as the pads wear. When the calipers get old enough or rusty enough, the slide pins get rusted in their guide-bores, and the two halves of the caliper wont readily move; although stepping on the brake WILL force it to shift. The result is that one pad is not held against the rotor as it should be (which on the passenger side caliper would result in pulling to the left during light braking), while the other pad is pushed against the rotor (lightly) all the time, instead of being able to retract that 'thousandth' of an inch as it normally should. Hence the rotor runs hot.
I have bought a set of new guide pins and new rubber bushings for the guide bores to I can fix this on the 92. It not only wore out one pad prematurely, it also lowered our MPG from 37 on the open road, down to 32 MPG. Actually I bought two sets of the parts, since I have two Escorts with about 200,000 miles on them, and I plan to replace the old caliper parts on the other Escort too. When something wears out on one car, I like to fix it on both - so I can make 'pre-emptive' repairs at my own pace.
Im 64, and bending over to work on the brakes is Not Fun for my back muscles. I do all of my workk under a shade tree in the driveway, & dont own a way to get the cars brakes up to waist height.
Your mechanic did the right thing & the price seems fair. The labor to put new guide pins on the old caliper would have made the job just as expensive as replacing the caliper.

I have a 94 and a 92 Escort LX, and the brake calipers may be different from yours, but on mine the calipers have a pair of sliding pins to let the two halves of the caliper move together as the pads wear. When the calipers get old enough or rusty enough, the slide pins get rusted in their guide-bores, and the two halves of the caliper wont readily move; although stepping on the brake WILL force it to shift. The result is that one pad is not held against the rotor as it should be (which on the passenger side caliper would result in pulling to the left during light braking), while the other pad is pushed against the rotor (lightly) all the time, instead of being able to retract that 'thousandth' of an inch as it normally should. Hence the rotor runs hot.
I have bought a set of new guide pins and new rubber bushings for the guide bores to I can fix this on the 92. It not only wore out one pad prematurely, it also lowered our MPG from 37 on the open road, down to 32 MPG. Actually I bought two sets of the parts, since I have two Escorts with about 200,000 miles on them, and I plan to replace the old caliper parts on the other Escort too. When something wears out on one car, I like to fix it on both - so I can make 'pre-emptive' repairs at my own pace.
Im 64, and bending over to work on the brakes is Not Fun for my back muscles. I do all of my workk under a shade tree in the driveway, & dont own a way to get the cars brakes up to waist height.
Your mechanic did the right thing & the price seems fair. The labor to put new guide pins on the old caliper would have made the job just as expensive as replacing the caliper.

Thanks for the last two posts, people!!! $319.68 seems like a lot of money to me, but what is someone to do? By the way, the garage charged me $160 for 2 hours labor, even tho' it only took them about 1 1/2 hours. I've found life to be really tough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a good day!

Frankly it time to find a new shop!

Just checked pricing: Advance Auto Replacement Calibers with pads $60.00 each
Rock Auto Replacement Calibers with pads $29.00 each--Thats after the core is returned

Thanks for the last two posts, people!!! $319.68 seems like a lot of money to me, but what is someone to do?

Shop, shop, shop, get quotes and compare, use the phone. Frankly this seemed like a ripoff and I doubt hourly rates are that much different from here. Hope this is a lesson learned. Of course its your money!

Dragging caliper and wheel bearing possibilities have been mentioned. What are the possibilities that an outer-CV joing could cause the overheating ??? Not saying this is or is likely the issue, just throwing that in the mix.

Denisond3, '94 LX, I've always used a high speed drill and sanding attachment to clean off the buildup on the mounting pins for the pads. Of course, it's a good idea to replace them if they're actually corroding and getting thinner. The buildup even narrows the little holes. I've purchased M-Springs before but I found out they were as weak or weaker than the originals.

Regarding the caliper mount issues...
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=5990639&postcount=13
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=5994476&postcount=5
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=5994480&postcount=6
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=5995468&postcount=8

Before coming up with that solution, I've talked to store personnel about the caliper slide mount issue and they recommended replacement too... but found it an unnecessary expense; especially given the temporary nature of the "fix." A mechanic wanted to use a special lubricant but knew that would be extremely temporary as well. Honing them out and cleaning up the slide-mount cylinders has proven to be THE solution. As far as the lubricant, Kendall Blue High Temperature bearing grease http://www.autoparts2020.com/rsdev/part_group.jsp?PHPRJ_GROUP_ID=1377&cat=2,3,4,5,9