Hot engine, smoke and sticky brakes

[Virginia]

This weirdness happened Sunday. It's hot here in Tennessee. I was driving my truck around 1 in the afternoon. I noticed a smell like melting plastic coming inside my cab. I got home and pulled into the driveway with no resistance. I saw a small puff of smoke coming out from underneath but it didn't last long. I also noticed the temp guage higher than usual but not in the red zone. I got a hose and ran some water over the radiator then took a cloth and while running water over the cap, I took the cap off and of course hot rusty water spewed out. I ran water in the opening until it stopped spewing and until it was full again. Them temp dropped back down to usual. The odd thing is that when I put it in gear and backed out, it acted like the emergency brake didn't fully release. I felt the drag both in reverse and forward.

 

Calipers sticking? I haven't checked the brake fluid. I'll do that this afternoon. Just thought about that but any other ideas of that might cause this?

[gogmorgo]

Low brake fluid would cause the opposite problem, brakes that don’t work at all.
 

Stuck brake seems likely. Pushing through a sticky brake will make the truck work harder, usually makes it drive kinda funky too. If you take it for a short drive you should be able to tell which wheel is getting hot, or lift it off the wheels off the ground and see if one’s dragging. 
 

The first one I had happen to me, I’ve never seen a gas station clear out so quickly as I did the one time I pulled off the highway and straight up to a pump, which is when I realized my brake was seized. It wasn’t so much a puff of smoke off the brake, billowing more like. I’ve have to do every calliper on my Jeeps at some point. The original drums likely aren’t asjusted well enough to cause seizing problems but don’t discount them either. 

[pizzaman09]

I usually find the stuck brake is easily identified by which side of the road the truck veers to when the brakes are hit hard.  

 

I did once had the parking brake hanging at the y splitter under the truck as the threaded adjuster was adjusted too far. And snubbing out on the back of the bracket. 

[Pete M]

a cheap infrared thermometer can identify which brakes are hotter than the others.    

[Virginia]

28 minutes ago, Pete M said:

a cheap infrared thermometer can identify which brakes are hotter than the others.    

Brilliant. I have one of those

 

[Virginia]

5 hours ago, gogmorgo said:

Low brake fluid would cause the opposite problem, brakes that don’t work at all.
 

Stuck brake seems likely. Pushing through a sticky brake will make the truck work harder, usually makes it drive kinda funky too. If you take it for a short drive you should be able to tell which wheel is getting hot, or lift it off the wheels off the ground and see if one’s dragging. 
 

The first one I had happen to me, I’ve never seen a gas station clear out so quickly as I did the one time I pulled off the highway and straight up to a pump, which is when I realized my brake was seized. It wasn’t so much a puff of smoke off the brake, billowing more like. I’ve have to do every calliper on my Jeeps at some point. The original drums likely aren’t asjusted well enough to cause seizing problems but don’t discount them either. 

I hope to do some testing this weekend.

[Virginia]

This morning, I went out to move the truck. Drove like nothing was wrong. No sticky brakes.

 

Baffled

[Gojira94]

1 hour ago, Virginia said:

This morning, I went out to move the truck. Drove like nothing was wrong. No sticky brakes.

 

Baffled

 

2 things come to mind: One, an old brake hose on one side (or both) in the front, partially collapsed. Allows fluid to flow to the caliper easily enough but doesn't allow the fluid to move back up the line toward the proportioning valve and master cylinder when the pedal is released (pretty typical of front hose failure). As this inside of the rubber portion of the hose breaks down, crumbs/ sediment settles in the caliper, hose and points upstream, potentially causing small clogs in the proportioning valve and master cylinder. This inhibits normal back and forth flow of the fluid between master and caliper. Two: sediment/ debris in the master's rear compartment (rear portion is for front brakes, front is for rear). Anything that can cause an obstruction to fluid flow can cause the sticking you're observing.

 

This condition can momentarily resolve itself if the rubber crumbs/ sediment move around a bit, but it will come back sooner rather than later. You can open the master, and if the fluid is dark enough you can't see the bottom of the reservoir, pull it out with a turkey baster and see if you have a lot of sediment in the bottom. This is a good indication that the front hoses are shedding material. The rubber line at the rear is far enough from the master that it usually gums up the wheel cylinders before it gets drawn all the way back to the master. If your rear brake bias proportioning valve is still in place, it could potentially get fouled with debris from the rear hose, but I'd focus on the front brakes as the primary culprit and keep the rears in mind as a near-future item to inspect/ address.

 

Probably no worse than replacing the front hoses, quick flush of the calipers, cleaning out the hard lines up to the master, the master itself and refilling/ bleeding to start with.

[Virginia]

3 hours ago, Gojira94 said:

 

2 things come to mind: One, an old brake hose on one side (or both) in the front, partially collapsed. Allows fluid to flow to the caliper easily enough but doesn't allow the fluid to move back up the line toward the proportioning valve and master cylinder when the pedal is released (pretty typical of front hose failure). As this inside of the rubber portion of the hose breaks down, crumbs/ sediment settles in the caliper, hose and points upstream, potentially causing small clogs in the proportioning valve and master cylinder. This inhibits normal back and forth flow of the fluid between master and caliper. Two: sediment/ debris in the master's rear compartment (rear portion is for front brakes, front is for rear). Anything that can cause an obstruction to fluid flow can cause the sticking you're observing.

 

This condition can momentarily resolve itself if the rubber crumbs/ sediment move around a bit, but it will come back sooner rather than later. You can open the master, and if the fluid is dark enough you can't see the bottom of the reservoir, pull it out with a turkey baster and see if you have a lot of sediment in the bottom. This is a good indication that the front hoses are shedding material. The rubber line at the rear is far enough from the master that it usually gums up the wheel cylinders before it gets drawn all the way back to the master. If your rear brake bias proportioning valve is still in place, it could potentially get fouled with debris from the rear hose, but I'd focus on the front brakes as the primary culprit and keep the rears in mind as a near-future item to inspect/ address.

 

Probably no worse than replacing the front hoses, quick flush of the calipers, cleaning out the hard lines up to the master, the master itself and refilling/ bleeding to start with.

OK, I'll take a look.