99 OBW

 

front discs are getting hot but the rears are OK. have plenty of brake fluid.there seems to be a slight dragging noise.

Front brakes do get hot, they do 90% of the work.

 

You may be looking at this wrong, why arent the reas getting hot.

 

I am not sure of what the issue is. Disc brakes do slightly drag by their nature. Can you explain it a little better?

the last time i checked the pads over a year ago they were measured less than 3/16th of an inch.

 

in the haynes it says the brakes will be making a high pitched whining noise ( when pads need to be replaced)but mine is making a lower sound like dragging noise. the discs are still nice and smooth.

 

i will be replacing them next weekend but want to know how serious it is.if i can still drive a couple hundred more miles.

Are the pads worn evenly?

The brakes on that car have a bad reputation of the slide pins rusting up and sticking. Symptoms of this will be pads worn crooked, or the pad on one side of the rotor will have significant more wear than the other.

 

Reason I ask is I've seen sticking slide pins cause the brakes to overheat because the pads aren't puling away from the rotor enough.

ok i'll check that.

 

thanks

In general anytime you do a sooby brake job you need to clean and lube the pins. There is nothing wrong with replacing the pads before they are worn enough to trip the wear indicators.

I am going to guess a slide pin/s and/or a piston/s are sticking/frozen. This prevents your brake pads from retracting and letting the wheel turn freely. If your caliper and bracket bolts are not frozen, then replacing the whole bracket/caliper assembly is quite easy. Go to AutoZone (or like shop) and buy a reman caliper....comes with everything but the banjo bolt and bracket bolts. Cost about $65 once you net out the core charge. Easy fix. Oh, btw, expect to replace the pads while you are at it.

If you want to replace it all, you're looking for a loaded caliper, or something like that. It's a loaded something.

 

When I worked at a shop we'd have to do it all the time for various cars for whatever reason. If you get the right one it'll come with bracket, caliper, pads, and the slide spring things for the pads. Whatever the hell they're called. The ones we got usually didn't come with a banjo bolt, but did come with copper washers.

 

Another thing I've seen cause badly dragging brakes is rubber hose. They can break down inside and create a sort of check valve. So the brake fluid can't get back to the reservoir. I don't think I've ever seen it on a subaru though.

my money is on sticky slider pins - probably the most common issue on a Subaru. that or the pads not moving freely in the brackets (just dealt with this one myself!)

 

If the pads are difficult to remove, you have issues with rust build up under the stainless steel clips - the pads should wiggle freely. the cure fro this one as filing the rust off the brackets where the clips sit - and lube them up with the disc brake lube.

 

if the pads come out farily easy, after removal, swing the caliper back into place, replace the bolt and see if the caliper will slide easily back and forth on the pins - if not, your pins need to be cleaned & lubed with disc brake lube or replaced.

 

FWIW - the squealers do not always make that "high pitched squeal" when the pads get worn down enough - if the pad without the squealer is the one that is wearing faster, you wont hear any squeal. if you are hearing a "grinding" noise, i am going to bet you have at least one "pad" that is all the way down to metal on metal.

I agree with this. If you can get it apart, you can service it. Otherwise, replace with used/rebuilt calipers if it is trashed.

 

I regard this as regular maintenance to prevent these conditions. I advise you should inspect your brakes at least once a year, inspect and lube. Do this especially before and after winter road salts.

 

my money is on sticky slider pins - probably the most common issue on a Subaru. that or the pads not moving freely in the brackets (just dealt with this one myself!)

 

If the pads are difficult to remove, you have issues with rust build up under the stainless steel clips - the pads should wiggle freely. the cure fro this one as filing the rust off the brackets where the clips sit - and lube them up with the disc brake lube.

 

if the pads come out farily easy, after removal, swing the caliper back into place, replace the bolt and see if the caliper will slide easily back and forth on the pins - if not, your pins need to be cleaned & lubed with disc brake lube or replaced.

 

FWIW - the squealers do not always make that "high pitched squeal" when the pads get worn down enough - if the pad without the squealer is the one that is wearing faster, you wont hear any squeal. if you are hearing a "grinding" noise, i am going to bet you have at least one "pad" that is all the way down to metal on metal.

i have to wait til sunday to look at it but am expecting the worse since i have owned the car since 2005 and have driven it 140000 miles ( 99% hwy) without even looking at brakes.

 

got blaster, brake cleaner ready but need to get clamps and lube.

 

i'll post when i see condition of pads.

is your brake fluid filled to max? I found that my calipers stick if I fill the reservoir all the way. I remedied this by filling it 3/4ths full and resetting the caliper pistons(pushing them back with a vice), no more light drag and an extra couple miles to the gallon, especially in the city

 

I have also been thinking about cleaning my caliper pistons I have the time to take them off the car and sand out the innards with high grit goodness so its factory smooth again. I watched some net videos recently of people doing this and if properly put back together and bleed this looks like a win to me. rebuild seals run $5-10 for this job per caliper.... new calipers run about $50 so $40 and some elbow grease or $200 and some time saved..... depends on the person I guess. if I had the money I would just go get quality oem remans but I'm sure those run more than the $50 autozone/pepboys/oreilly specials.