Why could my rear brake caliper be intrmittently sticking?

Carve

Carve

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 2, 2018
Messages
130
Location
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Hey guys. Yesterday my 2004 Rubicon would barely coast down the slope of my driveway as I backed out of the garage. I went for a highway drive and the passenger side rear brake was super hot- the rotor looked almost purpleish. I pumped the brakes and it seemed to stop sticking. However, back to my driveway, I'd put it in first gear, get just a tiny bit of speed going, push in the clutch, and let it glide to a stop and then start rolling backwards. About half the time, half way through its backwards roll I'd hear a loud "thunk!" and then the brake would stick again. Any idea what's going on here? The only recent change is I just had reinforced upper control arm mounts welded to the rear axle.
 
I had one front brake that would intermittently stick on my LJ. My wife drove it one day and it happened to her and she pulled back to the house and came in to tell me the “Jeep was on fire”. Which was really the brake/pad/rotor super hot and smoking. That was the last stray and decided to go ahead and have the calipers and brake lines replaced (I was worried I may have some issue with line clogging also). Of course I also needed a new rotor at that point so I went ahead and had both side brakes done and new rotors. No problems since (of course I wouldn’t expect to have after changing all the pieces out). The most likely culprit on mine was a sticking caliper though.
 
I had the same issue last week with the driver's front brakes. I replaced the front calipers and brake hoses on both sides of the front. Also replaced the shocks as long as I was there. Learned they were original to my 2006 LJR.
 
I've had pretty new calipers stick lately, one set on my Ford and one set on this Jeep (Ford axle). I got a set of what I thought was premium calipers, and within a year they both stuck within a month of each other. Maybe 2000 miles.

Found a tremendous amount of rust between the dust seal and piston seal. I just took apart, cleaned up, and reinstalled. Maybe the casting bore on them are getting so wore out from rebuilding? Not sure. But maybe worth a try for an hour labor or so.

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I had that same issue on my last TJ, in the rear brakes. The Jeep felt like running with the emergency brakes on, and the rear calipers smoked. I replaced both calipers with new ones, same exact issue. One thing I figured out was the fact that if I let the Jeep sit for a few minutes without pressing the brakes, the brakes got loose and smooth, but as soon as I used them, bang !! , stuck again. After a visual inspection on the rear brake lines, I noticed that the “U” shaped brake line brackets that are welded on the chassis, were corroded around the rubber brake line, I took one line out, and sure thing, the rubber line was pinched by the heavy corrosion on the small metal bracket. All I did to fix it was removing the lines from the brackets, cleaned the corrosion out, loosen the bracket a bit, and Bingo !!! , problem solved, the Jeep felt like running on ice skates.
 
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