Rear Disc Brake Dragging

Hi,
I've got a 2013 Kia Forte Koup with 46k miles on it. Just noticed growling noise coming from my rear brakes. Pulled the wheels off and the driver side rear pads are gone. The passenger side are fine.
Not sure why one side would be getting more hydraulic pressure. The caliper seems to float fine.
Anybody know why this would be happening?

Thanks

 

When pads wear quicker on one side than the other it's an indication of either a failing caliper or collapsing brake line.

 

You typed caliper as in single. Did you check all calipers? And all of them are free? Rear calipers are sometime paired with wheels in front. although you should be able to detect a pull if one of the front calipers are completely frozen.

 

Two issues, the caliper slide is binding, you confined that it's not, so piston in the caliper is binding.

 

I checked the fronts awhile ago because they were squealing a bit. But they still had plenty of meat on them and quieted them down with some brake quiet.
Did not look at them today, but there is no pulling.

I did push the piston in on the rear caliper, so it is not seized.

 

Is the Parking Brake on that rig designed as a tiny drum with itsy-bitsy shoes inside the rear Rotor ?

Those shoes often de-laminate and seize up; and mimic a disc problem.

To free them up, you have to move a few feet in reverse, and hope that they don't get jammed again before you can replace them (the shoes)..

 

It's either this or something wrong with your ABS, which more than likely would generate a fault code. Note that you need to check all 4 wheels (actually both rear and opposite diagonal, passenger front) to make sure caliper slides and calipers are not frozen. Not sure how your Kia separates their brake lines.

Do you know if your Kia has a independent proportioning valve or a check valve in the system.

Doubt it would make a difference, but you could bleed the brakes, couldn't hurt.

These are kinda long shots, 99% of the time it's what Marq1 said on one of the wheels.

 

I have no idea how Kia brake systems are designed. Is there any way to find out if Kia has issued a bulletin on this ?

 

usually is just a bad caliper or a bad brake hose going to that caliper, if both pads are worn out, you could check with the dealer or a lot of shops would have access to tsb on all data or another similar electronic manual.

 

You should be able to google your VIN to find out if there are any recalls or TSBs for your vehicle.

 

Seems like a caliper pin problem, they tend to get corrosion in there and can not move as readily as they should. You could remove a pin (there would be two) yourself, and see how it looks. Only a little bit of grease is required to keep these in proper condition. If the pin is corroded, you can replace it, or clean it up with some steel wool or such if its not too bad. If everything looks ok, then you have ruled out this most common issue. Could be corrosion inside the caliper itself and pitting of the piston that is hanging up. A brake bleed at that caliper might help, sometimes you get some moisture and corrosion that grits things up in there. when you bleed, if you get a bit of dirty fluid coming our at first that would help confirm some internal caliper corrosion. You should have your brakes bled at this time/mileage anyway, so may as well do it with a bit of attention to what you see come out when you do it.

If everything with the caliper seems ok, the brake hose could be collapsing/peeling off internally, would be unusual given the car is not that old, but can happen.