Brakes Dragging. What could cause it?

mattmal9 · May 11, 2015

Hey guys little help on this would be great, I have no idea what it is. Last week I smelled the "burning brake" smell so I checked it out and my back left was dragging. I pulled it apart cleaned and re-greased the guides and I also re-greased the caliper slide pins even though they were already moving freely. Put it all back together and seems fine. Today my front right started dragging. Same thing this time, I pulled it apart cleaned everything up and put it all back together, but like the rear the slides were all free and everything looked good. Any ideas what could be causing them to drag? I have no idea what, but with the slides moving freely, I feel like something is going on with the brake system causing the rear to drag one week and the front to do the next. Any help or recommendations with this is greatly appreciated.

sledhead_24_7 · May 12, 2015

My 15 has been dragging both fronts for about a year off and on. Have not dug into it yet, but soon.

mattmal9 · May 15, 2015

sledhead_24_7 said:
My 15 has been dragging both fronts for about a year off and on. Have not dug into it yet, but soon.

When you look into it can you let me know what you find? I'm at a loss right now with my truck. No clue why it's doing this.

DBQLSC · May 15, 2015

Sometimes the inner liner of the soft line breaks down or fails causing it to act like a check valve. I had one fail, so I replaced them all with stainless braided hoses. The one that failed was so bad that when I had to heat a flare nut with a torch to get it loose, it shot across the garage like a missile, and the one end was open.

CWAY6.7 · May 15, 2015

My 12 did this once and stopped, never did it again. It was right after I swapped brake pads though.

sledhead_24_7 · May 15, 2015

mattmal9 said:
When you look into it can you let me know what you find? I'm at a loss right now with my truck. No clue why it's doing this.

Certainly, I have been spending lots of extra time dealing with a shimmy in the steering wheel. Not death wobble but a constant shimmy.

Just got done installing some One Up Off-road parts up front. Now just need some miles on it to make sure that is cured. Then to move on.

mattmal9 · May 25, 2015

Just following up did some research, and found my truck, the 2011 model year had a TSB for brakes dragging. The solution is just to replace the caliper according to Ford and that worked for me. Hope this helps someone else.

TyCorr · May 25, 2015

A super duty with shti calipers? No way LOL

Ive had a lot of trucks. My 00 has had more effing brake problems. I probably need to just replace the whole damn mess.

mattmal9 · May 26, 2015

TyCorr said:
A super duty with shti calipers? No way LOL

This is my first Super Duty, I didn't know that had a history with bad brake systems.

lincolnlocker · May 26, 2015

mattmal9 said:
This is my first Super Duty, I didn't know that had a history with bad brake systems.

they dont usually.. stock calipers usually go 100k to 150k.. my dually has over 160k on it with original calipers. but are starting to get sticky from lack of use. my 01 has 197k on it and it has had all the calipers replaced from the original ones at 120k or so.. it sits more then anything i have ever owened. my brothers 02 had oem brake calipers replaced well before he got it and it was done at suposedly 140k but has had a couple sets of calipers on it since then from sitting due to him having a company truck.

live life full throttle