After changing my brake pads, and flexible brake hoses my front brakes will not release on my truck. I jacked up the front end and I cannot rotated the tires by hand, the truck will also not roll in drive. I’ve seen people say the hoses could be deteriorating but I don’t know about two brand new hoses doing that. Completely flushed and bled brake fluid as well, before topping it off. Any tips or help would be appreciated.
I’d guess the calipers themselves are seized. You didn’t say what year your truck is but if it has the 2 piston front calipers they are prone to seizing up after a pad change. And no matter how diligent you are about brake fluid changes it will happen anyway.
Its a single piston caliper. I had both off to change the hoses. I pressed them back into place using a c-clamp and it seemed fairly free.
Ok, then the truck is pre 2001 or so. I asked for the year of the truck. Is there some reason you can’t tell me that?
The guides can rust, the pistons still can seize. The brake design is really awful. Before you condem the calipers, crack the bleed screws and then see if the wheel turns freely after. If both sides turn after, I’d guess the master cylinder is bad.
Its a 1993. I cracked a bleeder and they turned fine. I pulled the calipers and the fluid just freely ran out. My guess is also a Master Cylinder after doing some more reading.
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Did you have any issues installing the calipers over the new pads?? If the caliper slide over pads with ease then I would remove a caliper and see of the rotor will rotate then…
Knowing the Year Make Model and FWD or 4WD will be of help…
EDIT you posted right as I was also… lol
I think if I had that problem my first guess would be some sort of problem w/those two new hoses. I think I’d first remove the two new rubber hoses and blow them out using air pressure. Maybe there is debris inside the hoses, insects making a home while the hose were at the parts store, etc. If any debris comes out, you may now have debris in the caliper piston chamber as well. In any event, this will give you chance to carefully bench-inspect the new hoses. You could install the old hoses as a test to see if they brakes return to normal. If they do, you know the problem is the new hoses.
I’m just a driveway diy’er, not a pro, but I’ve never had a brake MC fail that caused the brakes to lock up. I’ve had old ones fail when doing a manual brake bleed b/c the internal pistons run over burrs and get damaged. That’s a pretty common problem. But when that happens the symptom is I can’t get a firm pedal that holds.
Suggest to tell us about the method you used for the final brake bleed? How old is the existing brake MC?
Inspect the master cylinder cap, if the seal is swollen this indicates oil was added to the brake fluid. Oil will damage all brake system rubber seals.
I doubt the issue is with seized caliper pistons or slides since both L and R are locked tight and, presumably, this was not an issue prior to the repair. Are the rear brakes locked too? Try loosening the master cylinder from the brake booster and see if that releases them. Pull the vacuum line (with check valve) off the brake booster and see if that releases them. If it does, the issue is in the brake booster. If not, and only the front are locked, are you confident that the new brake lines are the correct ones?
Did you over tighten or “adjust” the wheel bearings when you replaced the pads??
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Hopefully OP will post back what they discover. Seems unlikely the problem is the brake booster, since the booster wasn’t involved in any of the brake work done. Likewise a wheel bearing problem seems unlikely b/c OP states above the wheel turns freely after the caliper bleeder is unscrewed. Anything’s possible of course.
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True, I forgot about the bleeder thing…
I have seen an ABS dump valve stick and cause the same issue, caliper not releasing after applying the brakes, crack the bleeder or line open and the caliper would release, but don’t remember seeing it do it on both fronts at the same time…
But since the OP has not even been on in 3 days, we may never know…
Did you pull and check the slide pins in the caliper bracket? I make sure to pull, clean, and lube the slide pins at each brake service. When cars reach higher mileage and older age I buy and replace the slide pins and boots at a major brake service (pads and rotors). I live in the rust belt and slide pins get stuck all the time.