What's going on??
 

My truck is a 1998 V6 with 67,000 miles on it. Yesterday I noticed my truck pulling hard to the left while I was on the highway. By the time I got home, there was a burning smell and a little smoke coming from the front wheel well area. The wheel and lug nuts were very, very hot to touch. I also noticed the power steering fluid appeared to be boiling in the reservoir. Anyone know what this might be? I've never replaced the wheel bearings or any brake components on this truck. I've only got as far as jacking up the truck and removing the wheel until this weekend.

Dave

I think your power steering fluid problem is just from counter steering your truck the entire drive home. Its probably going to need a refill, but It should still work.

It sounds like you have a brake caliper dragging or your bearing/spindle is shot.

Try shaking/wiggling the tire while its jacked up in the air. If theres alot of play in it, then its probably your bearing. If you drove it to the point that it was smoking, you might have to replace the spindle as well.

Then try turning the wheel by hand while its jacked up. If you cant get it to rotate at all you might be dragging a brake.

It's most likely your calipers. I have a 98 also & mine went @ about the same mileage. Your pistons wear out & when you apply the brakes thet don't push out straight, causing your brakes to lock up. Replace both sides, Good luck.

my brake pull was caused by the flexable brake hoses that go from the frame to the caliper. i did the calipers first and it still locked up so then i did the hoses and all is good now. the hoses are the cheaper fix so you might want to start there. at this point it would be a good idea to have the brakes inspected.

Man this is like de-ja-voo. My Grandpas truck had the exact same symptoms you described. His truck would pull to the left too. We replaced the brakes. No fix. Then we replaced the calipers. No fix. This one had us bumfuzzled. So we took it to a mechanic and he said it was a pinched brake hose. That fixed it. You might want to check into that.

Note: His brakes would get so hot that smoke would actually come from the left front brake area. And you couldn't even touch the wheel it was so hot. If you have a pinched brake hose on one side, that cuts off the braking power to that wheel. Which causes the other front wheel to do all the braking. Which in turn overheats the brake. :fyi:

my right hose actually broke internally and would let pressure get to the caliper but would not let it release locking up the right front wheel. there was no signs of damage from looking at the hose from the outside.