One of the front wheels get hotter than other one

Question

I have 2010 Suzuki Alto ( front wheel drive ), Recently I noticed that front wheels get hotter unusually. Just a 5km drive makes lug nuts really hot. A mechanic checked the calipers & everything related to brake system. He did greased the caliper pins and other parts & make sure everything works fine. Also found out that the handbrake was not releasing all the way so replaced the cables as well. I did replaced the brake pads 4 - 5 months ago.

Then the mechanic told me that sometime aftermarket brake pads can cause excessive heat as well.

Since it didn't solve my issue, I went to another mechanic. He did drove the car & checked everything, told me that there's nothing to worry. However he resurfaced the brake disks as it was not smooth. This made brakes much effective than previous but my problem remained same.

---

Today I noticed that one side is getting hotter than the other one.

When I try to rotate the wheel by hand, It was little bit tight than the other one. Also I notice that half of the spin get little bit more tight than other half.

What the mechanic have done so far,

1. Clean and greased the caliper pins.
2. Ensure that the pistons/ calipers works fine & brake applied well.
3. Resurfaced the disks as the surface was not smooth.

What I have done today,

1. Lifted up & spined the both wheel on 1st gear which is where only one wheel spined
2. I noticed that the inner side of the rim got too much dark dust from the brake pads ?
3. I also tried to lift only the wheel that get hotter & spin that wheel only. I heard no noise & it did spined without any issue.
4. I pressed the brake a bit while both wheels are lifted & running on 1st gear. The break on the spinning wheel causes to start rotating the other wheel but heard some kind of a sound of scraping two hard metal from the wheel that get hotter.
5. Checked if I can hear any noise or feel wobble wheels while driving. Everything seems to be fine.

What should I do next ?

Answer 1

If you've talked to two mechanics and both basically said the same thing, I'd suggest you're probably worrying over nothing. You state one side is hotter than the other, but you didn't say by how much. How did you verify one side is hotter than the other?

Remember, the way brakes work is through friction. With friction comes heat. The stopping energy of braking through friction has to be converted to something and dissipated, which is the heat you are feeling. The front brakes do 60+% of the braking action (between front/back), which also means they'll be hotter than the back. You're not hearing any noise or feeling any wobble, so mechanically it sounds like all is intact there. If it isn't pulling to one side or the other, then that is working as designed as well.

As far as the brake dust, it sounds like you have metallic pads on your vehicle. A much better option is to use ceramic, which leaves much less noticeable dust on the wheels. They usually work just a tad better than metallic pads do, too, so there's that as well. The only downside I've ever noticed with ceramic pads is, the first time they get really heated up during use, they tend to noticeably smoke, which is a bit disconcerting. Once that first thorough heat and cooldown is done, they don't do that anymore, but the first time you see it can cause worry.