So I'm driving back home from grad class the other night, merging from a main highway onto another main highway behind some random six cylinder mustang. I realize I'm "closing in" on him a bit quick, and decide to slow just a little to keep a safe distance (~45 mph). I put my foot on the pedal, and all of a sudden I totally lose brake pressure (pedal right to the floor, hardly slow down at all). Luckily I wasn't that close to mustang, so I lift my foot off the pedal for a second (in shock/dismay), and when I put my foot back on the pedal, the pressure returns.

Understandably freaked by this, I turned the AC and radio off to see if I could hear anything. Everything seems fine for like 1/2 mile-ish (no noticable noises), but then I can start to hear something. It was a combination squeek, squeel, clunk type deal that got progressively worse (over the course of another 1/2 mile...the distance it took me to find a place to pull off the main road that had no break down lane). Eventually, just as I was slowing down to take a right at the light, I determined that the noise seemed to vary with speed, and was now much worse than a mile before when I couldn't hear anything. The squeek/ squeel/ clunk was now a full blown clunk that occured about every 20 or 30 feet (guess at best)...even when driving in a totally straight line. I pulled off the road and got out to investigate (it was pretty dark out).

I caught a whiff of a faint smell when I got out of my truck, but couldn't tell what it was. I climbed under the bed to check out the rear end, but that seemed fine. I opened the hood (for the hell of it) and caught a faint whiff again, but all looked okay under there too. Finally I walked around the front right of the truck and noticed what appeared to be a trace amount of fluid dripping down the wheel...Now, I ain't no mechanic or nothing, but I know that brake fluid ain't supposed to leak out...whatsoever.

At this point I assumed that my front brake pads hadn't given me any squeek-type warning that all of my other vehicles typically did to let me know they were getting low (and I hadn't noticed any loss in performance), and that by now I had probably wore through the pads right into the rotor, and somehow overheated/busted the piston in my caliper or hose or something and caused fluid to leak (arrgghhh!). Regardless, something wasn't right, so I called AAA to tow my truck home.

The next day was thankfully about 55 or 60 degrees out, so I decided to look a little deeper. In the process of pulling the front right wheel off (the one with the "fluid" mark), I noticed that the wheel seemed to wobble more than it should, considering that the front left wheel was still on the ground (and not free to move). I got the wheel off, and checked around. Both pads on the front right wheel had a decent amount of pad left on them (not like 1/2"...but not like paper-thin either). What I did seem to notice is that the rotor seemed "pulled-away" a bit from the rest of the front steering assy, and what looked to be a lot of grease was visible behind the rotor.

I then pulled off the front left wheel to compare it too, and noticed that I had pad left on that side too...but the rotor seemed to be tighter against the steering assy, and no/not nearly as much grease was evident.

My guess as to what happened that night is this (and I in no way assert that I have any background to...back this up):
*Unbeknownst to me, the front right wheel bearing "blew" (or the seal failed) and caused super-heated grease to get on the rotor/pads.
*When I hit my brakes slightly on the on-ramp, the grease on the front right rotor tricked the ABS sensor (or something) to think that that wheel was slipping (like on ice etc.)
*No longer packed with grease, the bearing started to fail much more quickly over the next mile, eventually making the clunk noise I got now.
*When I took the wheel off the next morning, I could not trace any part of the brake system where the line of "fluid" on the wheel could have originated from...after taking the plastic SVT center cap off, the best I could figure is that a tiny bit of grease managed to "pop out" of the golf-ball sized metal cap (that I thought held grease in the wheel bearing assy). The fluid drip on the wheel mysteriously started from no-where; this is the only place I could figure.

Anyway, I called my dealer about it and they said that they can't even look at it till Thursday. He said I could drop it off tomorrow if I want, but that my ESP warranty only gives me a max of 5 days worth of rental (which I've already found out the hard way once), and its up to me when I want to take it. He also said that if the repair doesn't end up getting covered by warranty, then I would have to pay for the price for them to diagnose the problem, fix the problem, and for the rental as well.

Without me even telling him 3% of the story I 've just told, he mentioned "brakes" and said that they wouldn't be covered due to normal wear and tear (which I understand...like tires etc). When I mentioned wheel bearings, he said they would be covered by warranty.

I should also say that my truck has ~52,000 miles on it, and that the front pads were replaced and rotors surfaced under factory warranty dues to a faulty ABS sensor at ~20,000 miles.

Basically I'm wondering if anyone else has run into similar problems (either on their L or another vehicle), and if my theory is at all plausible and could possibly explain the hiccup my brakes had prior to this...without my brakes being at fault (and me therefore having to pay for the repairs).

This sucks. Wish me luck.

Later...

GK

 

Well, not the wheel bearing but in a freakish coincidence I did have to have one of my ABS sensors replaced on one of the front wheels before I was even through one tank of gas in my then brand new 2000 L. Maybe I should check my wheel bearings

 

Is it possible that when your last brake job was done the hub was removed to grease or relace the bearings and the Wheel nut was not put on snug enough? They should"nt be real tight anyway but they can be too loose. This would cause an eventual degradation of the wheel bearing and race and cause the wheel to wollar around as you mentioned. This should be an easy fix for the dealer. Let us know what their theory is.

 

My theory is your post wore out the wheel bearing.

 

MX.....


where in mass are u from?

i think i have seen u on 495 in the franklin area..

do u have the plate MXRACR or something like that?

 

Shorty.. haha

No, seriously though, I've never blown one in the L, but I blew one in my 67 stang, no brake problems had occured. Don't think it would have even mattered if grease got on those piece of crap drum brakes, lol, but the noises were as you discribed, sounds like a washing machine spinning every so often.

 

that the bearing grenaded . May have been adjusted too tightly or too loosely. Either could cause the bearing to overheat and self-destruct. Better hope they check the left one too.


Dan

 

That's weird that it just "blew" like that. Normally they just start whining, then rumbling, then growling, then rattling. I don't think they usually shoot their wad all over discs/calipers, but I could be wrong. This doesn't seem to be a common problem with L's AFAIK.

Some makes just have crap wheel bearings, like Subaru for instance. It's a widespread, well documented problem with them over the last several years (like weak trannies, piston slap, shuddering clutches, bad O2 sensors). SOA refuses to issue a recall - they just fix them as they come in. My Forester hadn't done it, but I got rid of that POS before it could.

 

Reminder to self...."Check Wheel Bearings & Grease Seals"

 

MXracer, that must have been one He** of a scary moment when you had the brake pedal hit the floor! So do you think that the wobbling rotor forced the brake pistons back into the cylinders so that when you hit the brake, the pistons had all that extra travel to make up? Next pump of the brakes and the brakes work fine? I'm no expert but I would have the ABS checked out as well. I've heard that there is a proceedure involved in adjusting/bleeding those that is quite different from non-abs brakes and failure to do it properly can ruin the abs system. Also, anyone else here think this is a safety issue? I mean, MX could have hit that car in front of him! Really have to wonder about possible shoddy repairs he may have received when the last brake job was done.