Front brake is sticking

When to work this morning, about 17 miles and had no problems. When I left this afternoon I noticed at a couple of stops that it did not coast like it used to. After fueling up I headed home and stopped at an intersection and could smell hot brakes. Not having any tools with me I continued on and made sure that I pulled the rear brake lever up to make sure it was not draging. Further down the road it started to squeek a little. Long story short, the front brake was dragging all the way home. I got it into the garage and cracked open the caliper bleed valve and a little squirt came out. This is the second time I have had to open it after changing both tires. I just changed the tires on Monday and took if for a short ride on Tue then today. While I had the tire off I and cleaned up and lubed the lower part of the caliper. Any ideas on why this is happening?

 

The Caliper Piston is having a difficult time retracting.
A very common problem.

To resolve the matter, you have to clean-out the "Channels" that the Caliper Piston Seals seat into.

Once you have the Caliper off and the Piston and Seals out ... you have to scrape-away all foreign matter within the two Channels.

The substance to be removed is part oxidation ... part brake dust ... part brake fluid and part moisture.

It collects and hardens effectively reducing the Inside Diameter of the Channels causing the effect of the Bore being Out-of-round.

Because of the close tolerance of the Seals to the Piston to begin with ... any additional material upsets the circumference just enough to cause the Caliper Piston to start sticking.

Scrape the three sides of each channel right down to bare aluminum.
Take care not to gouge the surface.
Once the foreign matter that has collected in there is removed and the channels cleaned ... the Piston will be able to float, again and release the pads from contacting the rotor.

 

Rick - Thanks for the quick response. I just got back in from following your instructions and it worked! No more sticking. And just like you said, all kinds of stuff back behind that seal. There was also a lot of gunk behind the piston. All clean now and everything seams to be much better.

Thanks again!

One last thing, where to you store all this knowledge?

 

In the gray matter between my ears.

I've had the same problem. Eventually, everybody else will too. If you like to scrub and clean your wheels and hose-off the Calipers ... you'll be doing the scrape and clean-out because hitting the Calipers with a stream of water accelerates the formation of that crap in there.

 

Did mine this morning, worked great.
Betchya I pick up 4-6 MPG!