afternoon,

my car is believed to have started belching smoke (blue with a funny smell). whereupon some old men shouted "get out of your car, its on fire!" my mother was driving at the time as i can't afford to keep it in Portsmouth.

current symptoms include very hot brake on the offside front, nasty smell and blue smoke rising from wheel arch (offside again). didn't affect cars handling apparently but she rarely drives it.

when i drove it to Swansea from Suffolk a month or so ago i did think it wasn't particularly its old self in the braking dept.

ramble ramble ramble.... front brake something jamming the brake on and emptying brake fluid all over hot metal?

the level of brake fluid hasn't been checked but the smell isn't that of burnt engine oil.

any ideas?

cheers

siezed caliper most likely.

had this on a e36. front calipers were siezed due to car being stood for a long time, and as the pads heated up the problem became worse until the car would struggle to do 30mph. you could clearly see it smoking when the car was stopped.

as you stated, she rarely drives it.

change BOTH calipers, pads, and possibly discs.

Strut cup broke and rubbing on the wheel, perhaps?

I don't know about on a 300 (hasn't happened to any of ours) but on my Dad's Skoda Felicia the strut cup breaking didn't affect driving it atall - apart from blue smoke from the tyre rubbing on it!

A possibility anyway (and a common 300 fault) - I can't think of another reason it'd be belching out blue smoke

I've come across two distinctly different smells from brakes! if it's an oily smell, it'll be the fluid (easy to check, look at the reservior and see if it's gone down). more likely if it's coming from the wheel is burning friction material, usually caused by the brakes binding (or stage rallying.... I've seen cars pull up to the finish line of a 5 minute stage with flames coming off the pads ) That should also be fairly easy to check - jack the car up and spin the wheels, they should both spin freely, if one doesn't then chances are the brakes are binding.

and as AMR says, make sure you change the same things on both sides. otherwise you'll end up with imbalanced brakes, which could be seriously dangerous.

strut cup looked fine last time i look. but i'll check in a week or two when i'm back in suffolk

the car does sit around a fair bit when not in use so parts could seize i guess. it explain all the problems hmm i'll investigate in a fortnight.

cheers

Yeah, it could well be the brakes seized up.

Take the caliper off the affected wheel and remove the pads. Then get someone else to give the pedal a good hard shove and see if the piston slides out. Be careful though and make sure it doesn't come out too far else it'll pop out and you'll get fluid everywhere.

Then peel the seal back and have a look at the piston itself, if it looks a bit rusty then clean it up very carefully with some fine grade emery cloth, like grade 600 or above, (you don't want anything to change the shape of it otherwise it won't seal again) and plenty of WD-40, but be careful to rinse it in brake cleaner afterwards. WD-40 isn't good for rubber seals If it looks too horrendous, then get another caliper from a scrappy.

If its looks fine, then see if you can push the piston back in. You might have to very carefully use a G-clamp to do this. Put some copper grease on the sliding grooves on the holder where the caliper mounts and then reassemble.

Pump the brakes a good few times to resettle the pads and then check for binding. It'll bind lightly....that's normal, but once you put the tyre back on, if you press and release the brake, if you knock the tyre a few times, you should then be able to spin it quite freely.

Hope that helps.

^^ lol ghetto job

whats wrong with that?


it saves money that can be used else where

why's that ghetto? I did a fairly similar thing with my dolly recently, albeit using a new seal kit:

remove wheel & pads
unbolt caliper
supporting caliper on axle stands, clamp one piston
pump brakes until other piston pops out
remove seals, clean everything carefully, replace seals
carefully push piston back in
repest for the other piston and other caliper
put it all back together and bleed

I dont understand why its gheto we did the same thing on a 740 and just replaced pads

lol it just seems the budget way of doing it.

ive always been taught to replace the calipers in pairs if theres something wrong (such as this), but to each their own.

i didnt say any thing about changing 1 caliper just that you should explore if you need to replace any thing at all ,normally a good bashing and lubing and a couple of hours elbo grease you have brakes that work like new

if you start messing with removal of dust seals etc, you've got to take the caliper of the strut and put it on your workbench.

much more thorough, and much easier to do at the same time.

the fluid will have to be changed anyway so bleeding should not be the issue.

I trust Andy on this, why replace something that isn't shot! Save something that is part of the car and you know, it if can be salvaged and made to work again there is no problem! Fair enough, new is balanced and starting from a level playing field, but not everyone can afford such items and leanring about the system and repairing it is very satisfying.

Ghetto it is not, cost effective and DIY it is. Brakes are a very important part of the system, of which once I would never have even touched, leaving it entirely to the pros! I now have the confidence to service this item and on three seperate vehicles have worked on the brakes in different ways. With the right care, knowledge and info, you can safely and sucessfully service the brakes.

Little use is what causes the brakes the most problems, I always park my cars with the handbrake off if they are going to stand, instead leaving them in gear. Luckily my GLT which has been standing needed the discs off for the wheelbearings to be done, which gave me a chance to clean any rust formation off and hopefully prevent any scoring or damage. Light use after the clean up should mean they bed in nicely again.

If it is indeed the strut cup, take care, as normally the tyre is shredded in no time at all from what I've heard. But maybe a partial collapse has led to rubbing, not a complete dig in yet?

Keep us posted.

Pete

i doubt its the suspension cause they look mostly ok. the rear shocks are starting to leak so they need a fix but otherwise i think there fine. i'd guess its the brakes cause they were 'funny' on the way to swansea. i think they need to be replaced. mac sorted out the back ones several months ago so i know there fine. although he thought they looked ok when he checked them. maybe i can get him to see whats what with them. he knows best after all.

cheers for all suggestions. can't play cheapo on the brakes mind, so i guess its overhaul both sides as much as possible.

cheers

toby