Okay, looking for some advice here. I noticed this weekend once that the van had a little "hum" to it coming from the rear end. Yesterday my wife took it to get groceries, and when she got home she said she could hear it again. I looked around and noticed that the drivers side rear brake and wheel were really hot. Since it's an '07 (EXL if that matters) with only 50K I was kinda pi$$ed that it would need a new caliper already, but the pads on the other 3 corners looked fine, and I could see that the outside pad on the drivers rear was completely worn out.
So last night I took the brake off that wheel. The outboard pad was completely gone, the inside had probably 3mm left. I figured at this point that the slides were shot/stuck/seized... whatever. I removed the caliper to diagnoze, the slides are still lubed well and move freely, and I was easily able to press the piston into the caliper with my thumb. Definitely not what I expected to find.
So, anyone heard of this? Mechanically the caliper looks fine to me, so I don't know what would have made it stick. It must have been the regular brakes dragging and not the parking brake (the parking brake wasn't left on either) since the foundation brakes were the ones worn out. I don't think the VSA was applying brakes to that wheel, cause I never saw the VSA indicator illuminate in the dash.
I hate to just put new pads on it without knowing what the problem was, but everything mechanically looks good to me. Any ideas? Maybe I'll just get some cheap pads for back there and see how they do for the next month. At least that way if it happens again I haven't trashed a set of premium Akebono's or the like.
So last night I took the brake off that wheel. The outboard pad was completely gone, the inside had probably 3mm left. I figured at this point that the slides were shot/stuck/seized... whatever. I removed the caliper to diagnoze, the slides are still lubed well and move freely, and I was easily able to press the piston into the caliper with my thumb. Definitely not what I expected to find.
So, anyone heard of this? Mechanically the caliper looks fine to me, so I don't know what would have made it stick. It must have been the regular brakes dragging and not the parking brake (the parking brake wasn't left on either) since the foundation brakes were the ones worn out. I don't think the VSA was applying brakes to that wheel, cause I never saw the VSA indicator illuminate in the dash.
I hate to just put new pads on it without knowing what the problem was, but everything mechanically looks good to me. Any ideas? Maybe I'll just get some cheap pads for back there and see how they do for the next month. At least that way if it happens again I haven't trashed a set of premium Akebono's or the like.