2003 Protege5
175k miles

It seems like the passenger side caliper is sticking or stuck. After driving a bit the alloy wheels are too hot to touch. It smells like hot brakes. And the passenger side wheel has obviously more brake dust. The driver side is warm, but can be touched.

Does this sound like a bad caliper? Not long ago new pads and rotors were installed.

 

Sounds like a sticky caliper. Did you replace the pads & rotors yourself?

 

At 175 miles it might have been a good idea to have replaced at least the front calipers if not the rear ? It does sound like you have a sticking caliper piston. You might also get your brake fluid completely changed as well. When you get the service brake caliper replaced on the side with the sticking caliper you might have them check the rotor for warping because of the possible over heating? After this is all done if you may have brake pad noise which will be normal because I do not think the pads were bed in correctly if at all when they were changed,

 

Who did the replacement? If you are handy and have some tools and a place to work on it, I'd pull both front wheels. Check the drivers side first as it seems to be OK. Then compare the passenger side. Check the anti rattle clips, boots and pads. The caliper should slide on the guide pins.

 

Hi. Thanks for the replies. My son and I replaced the pads and rotors. It's a job I'm familiar with and even so we went step-by-step using the factory service manual. That was about four months ago. I'll follow the tip to do a fluid change as well. My son thinks the rotor is also warped, so I'll also be replacing that. A few minute ago I got off the phone with the local independent Mazda shop I use for work I pay for. They also order parts for me when I do my own work. I like doing that since I get parts they use and recommend.

 

Ordered Centric calipers with brackets from Rock Auto.

FYI on Rock Auto. It came up in a thread I started on a Toyota site. I tried having an order sent to my house in Colorado and it wouldn't go through. The error said Rock Auto cannot deal with city taxes so they only ship to addresses where they do not have to deal with city tax. I have the parts sent to a colleague who lives in an unincorporated part of the county.

 

Son and I got this job done a few weeks ago. Best we can tell it looked like our fault. Lithium grease was used on the slides rather than slide grease, and it was really gummed up. Probably could have just cleaned the slides well and regreased properly, but we went ahead and installed the new calipers. Doing that also forced our hands at doing a complete fluid flush. The sticky caliper wore through >50% of the pads in ~4000 miles. We also replaced the rotor on that side.

Calipers we used:
Centric
142.45079
142.45080

The rotor(s):
Centric 120.45048

All in from Rock Auto was $160 after core returns and minus return core shipping. The moral of this repair story... Use proper grease for the slides!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for getting back and letting us all know what you solved.

Well look at it this way you learned something and posted great information that other may read and will be aware of things to insure they do a good brake service.