Hi Guys,

Hoping someone may know whats going on. 05 BA Fairmont on 18's and dumped on Pedders Superlows. Over the last few weeks I've been having an issue with the drivers side rear wheel getting so hot you can not touch it ... all other wheels are fine ... mild / normal heat etc after about 30 mins of normal city driving. Have had Quickfit Tyres have a look at it as i noticed this happening after they put my new wheels on, only happened once - they couldnt find anything wrong Now it is happening more frequently. Had it looked at at a local place here in Townsville ... they replaced front brake pads and machined the front rotors. They, as well could not find any evidence of why the wheel is getting so hot, they checked for discolouration on brake pad / rotor, un-even wear on pads, checked wheel bearing etc. Had that done today, drove it tonight and the wheel is still getting hot!!! ... Any ideas of what should be checked next ?

Thanks in advance for any help

Had that once on the left rear of my EF wagon. Turned out to be a seized brake caliper. Was so hot it smelled like the car was on fire. Absolutely cooked my EBC Greenstuff pad - the green paint was charred black and the friction material started crumbling at the edges . You could feel the extra resistance when it got hot and expanded - old brake fluid probably didn't help. But you couldn't tell by looking for rotor colour or pad wear. I traced it literally by following my nose - I could tell the burning smell was coming from that corner. Also the wheel was so hot that water sprayed on it would instantly burst into steam.

Bought a new piston and caliper rebuild kit, flushed and bled the brake fluid and all was good. Even got away with running the same barbecued pad for a while until I replaced all four corners.

Thanks mate for the reply. Yeh was yours doing that everytime you took it for a drive? I drove mine about 4 times over the weekend to see if it would happen again, drove it tonight ... nothing all seems to be ok - touchwood. The only thing i did over the weekend was remove both back wheels and spin the rotors checking for even resistence between the two and tap the problem wheel's brake caliper - resistence seemed to be the same both sides as well. Looks like i have the dreaded intermittent gremlin lol.

Nah. Mine was sporadic. Sometimes no issues for days. Played up majorly rushing to get someone to the airport. Smelled like fire and could feel major resistance/drag. Stopped and took a good look, couldn't see anything, but could feel the heat coming off the one wheel from a couple feet away. Got back underway after five minutes cooling down and had no problems and for some time afterwards. Go figure! Eventually was getting hot most of the time, so the problem became obvious - but not before roasting the pad.