I live in a pretty remote location, and car repair is iffy at best. I have a 2004 Ford F-150 that my wife drives for the most part. It has 50,000 miles on it and we are experiencing problems with the rear left brake. Upon start up, she works fine, but later, and not always, you will begin to feel it starting to grab, even though you no longer have the pedal pressed in. As you can imagine, the rotor gets hot and smokes. I pulled the wheel and drum, checked the emergency brake, cleaned and re-assembled. The problem appeared days later again. I pulled the wheel, depressed and bled the caliper, cleaned it, checked for fluid leaks, or axle seal link, found none, reassembled, only to find no fix to the problem

What should I do next?

Thanks

 

Did you lubricate the sliders?

 

Sliders?

Is that a term for the plunger?

Thanks for your much appreciated reply

 

Sounds Like You Need A Caliper, Best To Replace In Pairs, Make sure you lube all the hardware

 

is it the parking brake that is rubbing or the caliper?

What F151 means by the sliders... the caliper squeezes on both sides of the rotor, but there is only a piston on one side. The two sides are connected together and move on some pins (called sliders). These pins should be covered with a rubber boot. If this rubber boot comes loose, or cracks, you can get some dirt and moisture in there and the slider will rust/corrode or just get full of junk. This can cause brakes to rub and get really hot like you described.

If you think you can do it, and get things back together ok... you should pull it apart, clean the sliders with some steel wool, and then grease them with caliper grease and put it all back together.
This is much cheaper than buying a new caliper and should do the trick.

Also - if your rubber boots are cracked/missing... buy some new ones. It'll protect the sliders for another 3-4 or more years