[Nigel xD]

YouTube - ‪Smoke from Calipers!‬‏

YouTube - ‪Smoke from Calipers!‬‏

No idea how it might of happened.
Heres the story:

I was on a highway (1&9 for anyone who lives in NJ) and I hit a red light.
I knew from previous experiences that this light is loooonggg so I put it in park and sat there.

Once it finally turned green my car just felt beyond heavy. Confused, I made the turn and drove past a bridge and hit another red light.
This is when I noticed the smoke coming from behind me.

My friend saw it too and said it could be my exhaust smoke but I said it couldn't be because it would of showed up before!
I thought my transmission blew when I put it in drive because I kinda slapped it in hard.

So I pulled into a parking lot and got out of my car and saw the smoke pouring out of my rear driver side wheels and it smelled BAD.
Like someone can't cook BBQ and made the chicken super burnt.

The more I looked at it, the more it was coming out of my calipers.

So with that, I drove it an extra 2 miles home, smoking and what not.

When I got home, I attempted to cool it down (see video) and the water was sizzling off my calipers.

Any idea what happened??

[Log Surfer]

1. Don't spray cold water on hot metal, especially the rotors. You risk cracking them. Just a heads up in case it happens again.

2. Was there smoke coming from BOTH rear calipers?

3. Did you drive with the parking brake on?

[Nigel xD]

1) My bad! I just was so worried it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw smoke! Lesson learned!

2) No, just that one

3) nope! I checked for that too! It was down the entire time!

[Log Surfer]

1. No biggy, most peoples' first reaction to something being hot is to put water on it. Sudden changes in temperature generally isn't good for things.

2. Your caliper seized and you'll need to replace it, or it just got hung up and simply recompressing it may get it working again (I've had to do this on all 4 of my calipers). I'm not sure if S197 rear calipers need to be compressed the same way as SN95/NE calipers, but if they are then the caliper piston needs to be twisted back into place. If someone can confirm this, you'll either need to pick up a "cube tool" that attaches to a ratchet or a whole caliper compression kit (I got mine for $20 at Harbor Freight). Then just put the rear up on jack stands, remove the wheel, remove the bolts holding the caliper in place, compress the piston, put the caliper back in place, bolt it on, put the wheel back on, put the car back on the ground, and take it for a drive

[Green_6er]

your calipers locked up. mine did that too and i had to replace all 4 of my calipers

[Nigel xD]

Ah I see!

Damn that sucks -_-
So are you saying if one caliper seized, I'd have to replace all of them??

[Log Surfer]

Technically it's best to do brakes in sets so it would be a good idea to replace both rear calipers if your own happens to be seized. Although since your car is only 2 years old, you can probably get away with doing just one. I only replaced one of my front calipers and haven't had any issues.

[Lone Star]

Should also plan on replacing the rotor and brake pads too, if it got that hot and smoke was billowing off it at a stop light and then got home and washed it down with cold water you probably glazed the rotor at a minimum and could have possibly caused small cracks in the metal of the rotor that can cause a sever fracture at a later time.

[Nigel xD]

Got it, I might as well just upgrade to a big brake kit.
I've been meaning to anyway

Thanks for everything guys!