Hot rear brakes
 

Merry Christmas everyone. Over my holiday break, I'm going to try to straighten out a rear brake job which has kicked my @s$.

Long story short, I replaced:

• rear pads
• rear rotors
• driver's rear caliper with hose
• passenger parking brake shoes with hardware
• brake fluid, properly bled

All parts NAPA. Hardest part of the job was the passenger parking brake because it got stuck coming off and required about 8 hours worth of work to remove it (posted about it here).

I'm getting high rotor temps in the rear, particularly on the passenger side. Fronts are less than 100 deg F, driver's rear gets up to about 150-200 deg F, and passenger rear is close to 300 deg F, all after a 15-minute ride. Passenger side has a bit of a "hot" odor, but nothing that smells particularly distinct.

My 5th gen stays at less than 100 deg F at each wheel for the same period of driving.

I had it cooler for a period of time by backing BOTH parking brakes off completely, but since then I have tightened up on the driver's side (at the wheel) and surprisingly the passenger side got hot again. I think this might have been a fluke and just something that happened disassembling and reassembling the whole setup. I've rebuilt the whole parking brake on the passenger side twice now. Everything seems to move freely in the parking brake on the passenger side when the piston is compressed, even when the parking brake is properly adjusted.

Last thing to try is a new hose and caliper for the passenger side, as it's about the only thing that hasn't been replaced. Piston seems to compress ok, and it does float on the slide pins well, but I can't guarantee it's not dragging slightly at times.

Anything else I might not be thinking to check which can cause warm or hot rear brakes?

Is it possible the Ebrake cable is seizing or binding? I'm not sure how it all works since I've not had a problem with it but maybe after you've adjusted everything, don't apply the Ebrake, just drive it around and see if you get the same temps. Then apply the Ebrake, release it and drive around again, same course, and see if you get higher temps.

I had an '89 Toyota pickup truck with an Ebrake that would literally freeze when it had been raining, then dropped below freezing. Rear wheels would get really hot. I quit using it when it was supposed to get cold. You could have dirt or even a pinched cable that's binding and causing your problem.

Also, under the console, aft of the shifter is an Ebrake adjuster. That may be set too tight also.

Just my 2¢

If you have replaced everything and exhausted all possibilities, it's time to look at hydrobooster. My new to me 03 would pull hard to the right on medium to hard brake application but otherwise stopped OK. After a month, the pump failed so I replaced pump and accumulator (from the junkyard). Pull went away. Can't explain why this happened but it did. Also, I think there are screeen filters inside the hydroboost unit which if clogged that could cause fluid pressure to be incorrectly applied. I'm thinking rears are getting too much pressure which is causing them to heat up. Anyways, this is basis for research as I saw a YT video on this but can't find it now.

I would re-check the E-brake setting...

Just wondering why you started a new thread. Here's the original one if folks want more background.

Parking brake may not be right?

Because I wasn't convinced it was the parking brake any more...

Replaced the last caliper today and re-adjusted both sides of the parking brake to 8 clicks. Temperatures at the back rotors are a little hotter than the front, but are now the same side-to-side.

I think it was the caliper, dragging just slightly. The parking brake was what you would call a "red herring" - it wasn't the problem I was chasing, just a coincidence that it started at the time I replaced it.