Brake smell on Forester

[Cixcos]

My 02' Forester S has been the best car I ever owned. It now has 45K
miles and only been to the shop for regular scheduled maint.
Last Saturday I noticed a smell coming from the front right wheel. I
also noticed that the wheel was warmer to the touch than the left wheel.
Monday morning I took it to the dealer. They checked it and only
perfomed brake cleaning, finding nothing amiss. Today I drove it to a
250 mile round trip and the smell was back. It was a highway trip with
several traffic light stops and the car drives and brakes as usual. Only
there the smell. Has anyone experience this? The brake pads are almost
new on all four wheels and original Subaru parts. What could be causing
this? TIA!

Ben

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

possibly split cv boot spraying grease on exhaust.

Carl
1 Lucky Texan

 

[hippo]

My 02' Forester S has been the best car I ever owned. It now has 45K
miles and only been to the shop for regular scheduled maint.
Last Saturday I noticed a smell coming from the front right wheel. I
also noticed that the wheel was warmer to the touch than the left wheel.
Monday morning I took it to the dealer. They checked it and only
perfomed brake cleaning, finding nothing amiss. Today I drove it to a
250 mile round trip and the smell was back. It was a highway trip with
several traffic light stops and the car drives and brakes as usual. Only

there the smell. Has anyone experience this? The brake pads are almost
new on all four wheels and original Subaru parts. What could be causing
this? TIA!

Assuming that it *isn't* a CV grease or similar smell, my first suspicion
would be a binding caliper. Warmer wheel seems to indicate more friction
on that side. Try going for a drive, wait till everything's warmed up and
you have a clear road (!) then give your brakes two very sharp stabs as
close together as possible. Could help. If not, check that all the front
pads have backing shims and that they are installed correctly. My next
would be remove front pads, make sure the pistons are fully retracted,
reinstall and try again - but remember to work your brake pedal a couple
of times before you go driving off anywhere. If none of that works, you
could try lubing pistons. So far it's just cost you time. After that it
might be caliper service time but AFAIK that's not a really common problem
on Subis. Cheers

 

[marcwert]

I've never heard about lubing pistons. Sounds like the seal in the
caliper is not letting the piston retract. lift the front and spin the
each wheel. If one has more resistance then that one needs a sliding
bolt check or rebuilt caliper.

 

[Cixcos]

Turns out it was the inner boot on the right side was dripping grease on
the catalytic converter...thanx!

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

SELF hi five!!

(BTW - your shop shoulda found that when you took it in. I don't care if
they were looking at the brakes - they shoulda check other stuff while
they were under there)

Carl
1 Lucky Texan

 

[hippo]

SELF hi five!!

(BTW - your shop shoulda found that when you took it in. I don't care if

they were looking at the brakes - they shoulda check other stuff while
they were under there)

I'll second al that. (Yeah, ok, even the hi 5!) I agree it should have
been spotted. Good idea to do an underbonnet check every time you get
fuel. Check oil and check out the boots at the same time. They're the
closest thing to a PITA weakspot on the Subi drivetrain. Mine Liberty
seemed to lose one nearly every time one particular friend borrowed it. I
dunno ... maybe he's into shredding and not very ggod with a skateboard,
so he used the car instead? Four loans - three cv boots! Glad you found it
though. Cheers

Carl
1 Lucky Texan