Front brake was stuck on; will it happen again?
 

I left my V90 "collectors car of the future" in its garage over winter and into the spring. Yesterday, I finally got around to starting it up and, as always (battery still 95% charged) it started instantly. I noticed that the car was reluctant to reverse out of the garage but I thought no more about it.

I soon noticed a steering wheel shake - similar to having a front tyre with a bulge. It got worse. I stopped to look at the front tyres. One wheel was hot, with a wisp of smoke coming from the brake assembly so it seemed pretty clear that that brake partially was stuck on.

Before phoning for a breakdown service to take the car back home, I left the wheel to cool somewhat and a pressed hard several times on the brake pedal (engine running). I reasoned that this might either free it or lock it solid. In the latter case, I would be no worse off, still needing to call for assistance.

The car would still move easily so I drove it for a short distance. I found that the steering wheel shake had gone so I carried on driving. Arriving home, with several checks for wheel overheating on the way, I found that the wheel was back to normal temperature.

I presume that while not being used, the relevant brake piston had temporarily got stuck in its cylinder.

Two questions:
- Is this likely to happen again before too long? If so, what needs to be done?
- Will the overheating of the brake assembly have done any harm?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Martin

I had a similar problem, steering pulling until brakes applied.

I had previously overhauled the caliper, brackets etc so all should have been good. After cooling it seemed to be ok and didn't happen again.

Hard to say...

I had it on a van (still got it) and it happened several times, slowly becoming more frequent. Rebuilding the calipers sorted the problem :)

If I were you, I'd use it and enjoy it - if the problem happens again start to think about rebuilding the calipers or checking the brake flexi hoses aren't breaking down internally.

Not 100% sure about the type of brakes ons the V90 as I have allways had 940s.
If they are the same, then the caliper is conected via slider pins, it could be either the caliper or one ore both slider pins that are, or were siezed.
The fact that you say it was OK on the way home suggests that it was not fully siezed but tight. I would still be inclined to remove the pins, clean up everything, a twist drill of the correct size is good for cleaning out the bore for the slider pins, lubricate with silicone grease or High temp grease NOT COPA GREASE. Also I would press the caliper piston back in a couple of turns with a "G" clamp, unwind a couple of turns, leave the "G" clamp in position and pump the pedal till it goes tight (the piston will have come up to the pad on the clamp). Do this several times, or until it is noticably easier to wind back in, asuming it was tight in the first place.
All this asumes that you are confortable working on your brakes of course.

Most people don't brake extremely hard often, I find a nice clear lane get to about 50 odd then press hard on the brake pedal to ensure nothing has a chance to stick. I do it every now and then as i've had a locked brake on both my old V70 and my 940, not had any problems since doing this, of course it could be a coincidence. Car's don't really like being parked up unused though i'm not really sure what the correct procedure for storing a car is, might be worth a google?

I've recently bought a "new" 1997 S90, and, as we all do I guess, for the first few weeks I driven it oh-so-carefully, almost nun-like in my stately progress!

The car had been stored relatively unused in a garage prior to my purchase, and as I started to get a bit more relaxed about driving it I noticed that under heavier braking there'd be a bit of a droning sound, which was also noticeable through the brake pedal. At first I was worried that the pads were shot, but a closer look showed that this was not the case.

So, gritting my teeth I deliberately braked hard a few times on a quiet road from 50-ish down to stationary. The droning noise and sensation quite quickly disappeared after a couple of repeats of this, and I've now come to the conclusion that because the car had been stood, and because I'd been driving so gently, a bit of scale and corrosion had built up in the discs - probably the rears, simply through lack of use.

The couple of "livelier" applications of the brakes had helped to shift this, and now the braking is silent.

When you look at a car's brake discs after washing or heavy rain, it's surprising how much scale and rust quickly appears. The Nissan Note that I had prior to the S90 was left standing on the drive for just 10 days before being sold. And in that time the front brake discs rusted up completely, to the extent that the eventual buyer took one look and declared that new discs were needed! They weren't of course, and in the course of the test drive the discs started to shine again.

The lesson is that like all machines, cars don't respond well to a lack of regular use.

As for the proper way to store a car, no doubt there are all sorts of practical suggestions on-line, but mine would include:

1. Leave the handbrake off
2. If possible leave the car in neutral
3. Over-inflate the tyres to prevent the formation of flat spots, and check regularly to make sure that they stay up
4. If possible, before storage service the car and top up fluids. Grease things like door locks and bonnet catches.
5. At intervals during storage start the engine and let it run up to temperature at least once a month, if possible actually driving the car a short distance each time. With the engine running apply the brakes a few times to help prevent things from seizing up.
6. On re-commissioning the car again, change the oil and check fluids, pump the brakes a few time to get things moving.
7. Possibly turn the engine over with the coil disconnected on the first start-up, just to get the oil moving a bit.

Ideally a car should I guess be stored somewhere dry, and away from extremes of temperature and humdity, perhaps with the windows open to keep the air in and around the car nice and fresh.

A dozen or so years ago I bought an 1800ES that had been stood for over 20 years, but in a nice dry garage. Things did need easing off but because the car hadn't been subject to any damp, it really did all start moving again quite easily.

One last thing, remember that petrol deteriorates with age. If a car is being left for a long period then I'd suggest either filling the tank to the brim, or leaving the tank empty but with the filler cap removed.

What I found with the ES was that the tank had been left about half full. This petrol had started to gum up the fuel lines and filter, and stank absolutely terrible. I drained it and used the petrol in the old lawn mower - which I am certain led to the early demise of said grass-cutter! Because the tank was neither full nor empty, above the petrol line condensation had formed, which rusted the upper half of the inside of the tank. Rusty scale then dropped into the petrol - contributing to the general decay! If the tank had been left empty with the cap off I reckon that there'd have been no condensation, and I would not have had to remove the tank to be cleaned!

Cheers

Jack

No. (Probably no harm, but these days new fresh brake discs are very reasonably priced.)
The front brake calipers use two slidey bolts top and bottom which are ten times more likely to seize up than the piston.
It is very easy to remove them, clean them and clean the inside of their slidey hole (ooer missus!) then reapply new grease and Bob's yer uncle.
You don't even have to remove the caliper!!

Ask me how I know ;|

Apologies if it's already been covered.....

Have you removed and checked the pads ? They're sometimes quite a tight fit in their housings, and if they were fitted without any grease, they may have corroded in and become too tight. If this happens, then once you release the brake pedal, the offending pad will stay in partial contact with the disk (this is often enough to generate quite a lot of heat and it gets worse the hotter it gets). As long as the friction material hasn't been damaged by excessive heat, you should be able to simply remove them, run a fine file round the edges, regrease and refit them.

If there's a problem with a caliper, I'd replace it to be on the safe side. I had a 2nd generation Audi 100 some years ago, and after I'd driven it about a mile, it stopped by itself. When I checked the nearside front wheel, the disk was glowing orange. I used a wheelbrace to release the stuck caliper, then drove to a mate's workshop (using gears and handbrake to stop), borrowed a car and got another caliper from the local scrap yard.

Another thought.
A customer had a late model 740 (one of the last before it became the 940) and it failed the MOT on a binding nsf brake. The caliper was fine (piston was retracting when pedal pressure released), and the pads weren't stuck. The slides moved alright when checked by hand, but with the whole lot together, the caliper didn't centralise properly and it was hard to turn the wheel by hand. Careful inspection revealed that the slides were bent, but it was so slight you'd have struggled to notice. Not sure how they'd got like that though. It was so long ago I can't remember how we fixed it, but I suppose replacing the housing and slide pins would do it.

One of my cars had an enforced lay-up shortly before the MoT was due thanks to a dead alternator which took a while to source.

As such the MoT lapsed and when i took it in, it failed on brake balance on the front and something else (can't remember now what it was but i booked the car in for retest for the following day so something simple), brought the car home, fixed the other fail point and returned the following day.

Passed with flying colours. Brake balance absolutely spot on as well.

Didn't even look at the brakes, i'd felt them free up on the home-bound journey.

Like everything else, they need using to keep them working. ;) :D

I would agree with greasing the caliper pins if only as a preventative measure. My daily-use 940 has just had a seized pin. When I tried to remove it, it sheared off. The caliper carrier is now scrap and they are actually quite hard to come by. Volvo can get them from Sweden but they are classic parts so you are waiting anything from a couple of weeks to over a month. I was quoted about £50 for a new one but can't really wait that long so looking for a used one.