Rear Brake replacement

[RickEB]

I just replaced the rear brake pads and rotors today on my wife's 95. Everything was really a piece of cake once you have all the right tools, i.e., the caliper piston replacement tool (lets you use a ratchet to reseat the piston).

However, after finishing the job, the wife took the car out to go shopping. After about 15-20 minutes of driving in local traffic, the left rear wheel starting smoking really bad. She called me to tell me about it, and my first response was to ask if she had released the parking brake, which she said she did.

When she returned home, the wheel was extremely hot, but was not smoking anymore. I could not see any brake fluid leaking but could smell what seemed to be hot pads.

I opened the hood and noticed that the master cylinder reservoir was overfull. I had removed some brake fluid while working on the car and had after reassembly, replaced a small amount to a level just below the maximum. But now it was too full. I removed some fluid to bring the level back down, but I am not sure this will alleviate the problem.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I did wrong? Or what I should do next? Any assistance or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Please email me if you want. [email protected]

BTW, I appreciate this forum very much. It is nice to know that I am not the only one experiencing the problems I have with this car and all the information shared here has been a great help to determine what I need to do next. It is nice to be somewhat knowledgeable when you take this vehicle to the shop so that you don't get gouged too bad on repairs.

Thanks to all the members and hope you all had a great weekend.

Rick.

[dsatt12]

Here's my take on what you described:

As a first guess, especially if the parking brake isn't used on a regular basis- it's stuck on. Whether it's a gunked up cable or in the caliper itself I couldn't say, but you need to make sure that it's releasing like it should.

Now that brake being stuck on very well might have boiled the brake fluid in the caliper. That would account for all the smoke (really really hot pad plus vaporized fluid coming out). It would also shove all kinds of brake fluid back up the lines into the master cylinder.

Even if it didn't get so severe as to boil the fluid, I'd recommend bleeding the brakes really well. If you've now got an excess of fluid in the reservoir, it stands to reason that it got forced back out of the lines. The reason this is a biggie to me is that if brake fluid got forced all the way from one of the calipers back to the ABS modulator, well, that's bad. I can't vouch for the exact design used in the Auroras, but one I dissected off a 93 Buick Lesabre (after it died) had lots of little channels and stuff that didn't react well to little bits of dirt and rust that found their way past the seals at the caliper. That damn thing was almost as much as the car was worth. For some reason everything on the Aurora seems to be about twice as spendy as their more numerous GM cousins... It ought to be worth a little hassle I think just in case.

If all else fails, I replaced one of my rear calipers with a rebuilt one from advance auto a few years back. I, uh, tried to force the piston straight back in with a regular caliper retractor tool. I just thought it was stuck. It likely wasn't, but I certainly bound it up good while breaking that nice craftsman tool on it... I think the caliper was only $65, and they had it in stock. It was really simple to do. As a side note to this: don't drink and DIY mechanic. It ends up costing you extra when you miss little details like TWISTING in the rear calipers.

[dmorlow]

Yeah, if you don't use it often, it is stuck. If you ever put the parking brake on and it doesn't release, then you have to get under your car and bang it off. Usually what I do is when I change my oil, I put the parking brake on and off a few times. I have the car up in the air and I expect it is going to lock up. So while it is in the air, I can do it a few times and it is convenient to bang it off. But you need to use it semi-often to keep the back brakes adjusted. One of these days I think I need to replace my parking brake cable so mine works right.

[1995oldsaurora]

you might have a sticking caliper..i jut did a complete front and rear brake job on my 95'..took it out for a ride and the brake pads started smoking and burning on the front passenger side.i replaced the caliper and everything was ok..

[RickEB]

Update on Brakes:

Turns out the caliper was bad. After two new rotors and two sets of pads on left rear wheel alone. Cost of caliper was $75.00. Had Pep Boys do the work, warrantied work that way, and had both calipers replaced. They tried the banging on the parking brake solution and greasing the cable, etc. etc. which ended up in the burning-up of the second set of pads and rotor. They ate that cost.

Thanks to all on here that responded, I appreciate your input and assistance.

BTW, now we start working on the transmission. I say it sounds like time to go buy a new car, since Oldsmobile Division is no longer and cost of parts is extremely high now as it is.

Good luck to you all with your cars.

RickEB