Brake rotor gets hot during stop and go driving

wayauste

I have 2011 Silverado. When driving in stop and go traffic I can feel a vibration in the pedals and steering wheel and the front drivers side disc brake is very hot. It does not happen when driving in normal highway traffic. Once the vibration starts it will stop when driving for a few minutes at highway speed but restart after applying the brake again. After it cools down it is fine until I hit stop and go traffic again. Any idea what could be causing this problem?

imidazol97

I think you need to check for a caliper that's not releasing pressure against the rotor. The other possibility is that the caliper on the other side is binding and not applying pressure to the rotor, so the one on the left is doing more of the work to compensate and has overheated the rotor. The rears do less of the braking than the backs.

What happens when you make a normal stop from 50 mph, gradually applying the brakes, pull onto the berm, and check the temperatures of BOTH rotors CAREFULLY with your fingers--they should both be really HOT.
Then try a stop after driving a mile to cool rotors from 30 mph with gentle pressure.

Another distant possibiilty is that the hose to the brake has collapsed and does not let the fluid move back toward the master cylinder properly.

thecardoc3

imidazol97 said:

Another distant possibiilty is that the hose to the brake has collapsed and does not let the fluid move back toward the master cylinder properly.

This is recommended a lot with symptoms like this but there is a detail missing. There should be a pull to one side when the brakes are applied, then as the brakes are held the brake pressure gets to equalize so the truck stabilizes and starts going straight until the pedal is released. When the pedal is released the pull switches sides and the truck goes the other direction until the pressures once again equalize.

Now a dragging caliper could be a possibility. If the vehicle can be lifted, someone can see how freely the wheels turn. Then an assistant can slowly start applying the brake pedal until the wheel is held by the brakes and the assistant needs to memorize how much pressure is on the pedal to apply that wheel. This routine needs to be repeated at all four wheels (with the transmission in neutral) to make sure that all are engaging at approximately the same pedal travel.