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Well I've been having this problem for a long while now causing me not only frustration but not to be trusted at work for getting there late and other personal problems.

I'm trying to sell the car now , since I can't find the problem nobody would take the car as it is.

On a normal day it would happen but happens most on a hot day or also when I turn on the air conditioner. I would be driving normally and the car would start slowing down rapidly once I let go of the gas pedal while not pressing on the brake. And then as the problem continues if I try pressing the gas the car would accelerate roughly 30-50 miles per hour and it would sound as if the engine or car can't handle it since the front right brake is getting tight.

When I let go of the gas pedal while going 50 the car will decrease in speed rapidly to 20mphs and start smelling like burnt brakes.

I've had to stop the car several times even on freeways to cool down the brakes.

  1. What seems to help is letting the brake cool down and press on the brakes while the car is off. Like I feel the pressure releases or something

  2. I've changed the brake hose once recently , caliper twice with bolts and everything , I've changed the rotor or disk twice as well, including brake pads since either they broke because of the heat or pressure.

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    Did you do the work on the brakes? If so, are you absolutely positive you put everything back on correctly? It seems to me you have a caliper which is sticking (not retracting the piston) which is causing the brake pads to drag on the rotor. If you have a new caliper on there and it's still dragging, this is the only thing I can think of which may be causing it. It could be a defective caliper as well, though.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 12:19
  • @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 my mechanic and I worked on the car several time , yes he put everything back the way it's supposed to. I'm curious too in what's the problem because I've changed almost everything. Brake pads, caliper and also rotor I've changed several times. The master cylinder and booster I changed a month ago. I'll go to a different mechanic and check if my mechanic put everything back in place like it's supposed too. Also I have a bad lower control arm but I doubt this could be the problem.
    – OB1gamerxD
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 20:07
  • @OB1gamerxD What's bad about your control arm? Also, are your caliper slidng bolts lubricated properly?
    – tlhIngan
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 20:31
  • @tlhIngan the bushing or ball joint is ripped so it causes a slight bang or metal to metal sound while hitting but I doubt that could be the problem. And yes last week I changed the brake hose and I told the mechanic who did it to lubricate them again
    – OB1gamerxD
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 21:09

1 Answer 1

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Did you regularly changed the brake fluid? A long overdue brake fluid can cause corrosion in the brake parts. When the seized brakes happen, do the brake pedal feels different?

Normally a sticking brake come from a seized brake piston in the caliper. If the calipers and brake hoses are 100% fine then i suspect either the master brake cylinder or the brake booster to be faulty. Explanation: One of these components sticks while actuating the brake and the brake boosters helps holding the brake closed. When turning the car off, the brake booster doesn't exercises force on the master cylinder and the brake piston in the caliper finally exercises enough pressure to overcome the resistance in the sticking part.

Changing the brake master cylinder or the brake booster is normally a work for a professional since its a source of single point failure, not allowing mistakes.

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  • Sorry to mention I had also changed the master cylinder and the brake booster a month back. I will add this to my question too. But the brake pedal feels hard when they get tight and yes I've been checking the brake fluid constantly.
    – OB1gamerxD
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 20:01
  • Does all the brakes get tight or only the front brakes? When this happens, you could check if the rims of the rear brakes are hot.
    – Martin
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 20:09
  • only the front right brake gets tight and I've noticed the back left drum brake would be hot. This happened a while back when my cylinder ripped and made me drive without brakes but I've fixed the problem. And it doesn't get hot anymore just usually when the brakes are getting to tight after a long while.
    – OB1gamerxD
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 20:11
  • Please explain the thing about the ripped cylinder. If those two brakes get hot and the other ones won't get hot it means that one brake circuit is blocked. I suspect the master cylinder or the abs system
    – Martin
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 20:18
  • a while back I was driving to work. And I would smell like my back drum brakes were hot after exiting the freeway at a pretty fast speed. I pressed on the breaks and heard a pop sound. The first time this happened to me my drum brake caught on fire nothing big just a slight flame I could blow out. The second time nothing big just when I left my house it popped again. The reason this happened was my cylinder popped causing the brake fluid to escape. To the point where I had to refill it.
    – OB1gamerxD
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 21:15

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