Front DS Wheel/Rotor Friction

[revolve40]

Hi FAQ,

 

This weekend I installed a set of GC coilovers and everything went relatively well.  However, when I tightened the driver side caliper bolts into the strut, the brake tightened up.  Prior to installing the caliper, the rotor/hub spun freely with no in/out play.  The wheel rotates when under load (and drives), but I think the caliper is dragging on the rotor.  Passenger side is just fine. 

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks.

[Hans]

How old are the hoses?

[revolve40]

Not sure--they're braided ss lines; I figured if they were functioning fine before I installed the coilovers it was something I did wrong rather than a line issue, but I could be mistaken.

[AceAndrew]

By some weird chance did you keep the hardlines and caliper connected (just zip tied up in the fender well) while you did the strut assembly swap?

[TobyB]

My thought would be that your calipers are binding slightly.  And/or that something on the GC strut ears is slightly off, depending on what's hitting what...

 

t

 

['76mintgrün'02]

My calipers were dragging due to rust in the bores.

The problem was only in the outer quarter inch or so (outside of the seals).

It was not very hard to scrape that rust off and they have worked well ever since.

I am happy to share more information, if this turns out to be your problem.

[revolve40]

58 minutes ago, AceAndrew said:

By some weird chance did you keep the hardlines and caliper connected (just zip tied up in the fender well) while you did the strut assembly swap?

 

I did exactly this.  Maybe I kinked something?

 

Thanks for everyone's replies.

[AceAndrew]

1 hour ago, revolve40 said:

 

I did exactly this.  Maybe I kinked something?

 

Thanks for everyone's replies.

 

Well, there's the reasonable explanation that someone may have stepped on the brake pedal while the caliper was dangling.  This could have hyper-extended the pistons a tad (with no rotor to stop them).  Solution there is to simply bleed your front caliper to relieve the pressure (spreading the pistons back to their normal position).  Then get everything tightened down before bleeding again.

 

Or, as you say, a kink possibly occurred.

[Simeon]

No issues with the calipers needing spacers/washers to centre the disk in the caliper?

[Hans]

The hoses should be OK then. These are new struts -  with new caliper mounting ears? Even then, the pistons should be able to adjust to some off center mounting I would think. Maybe try bleeding or at least releasing the bleed nipples to see if it's just residual pressure. Unless you can see something actually fouling the rotor or the rotor is way off center