Hello everyone,

First off it's great to be on this forum and its going to be even better talking to all the Ford lovers. Using just my transit van i started a busines, the transit i got from a ford transit classified ads site. I started a company just over three years ago as a man in the van, removal services, moving house etc. The company slowly built up into something i am proud of today. Anyway one of my teams vans have broke down and we had to get a friend to toe it back to the yard. The front left wheel has locked up completely, front right wheel is fine and still rolling. The lads said that there was a little grinding noise along the motorway and then once they had pulled up finished a job and went to leave it had just locked up. I will place some specs below like the age etc that might help.

SPECS
Make: Ford
Model: Transit
Year: 2012:
Mileage: 98'276

If there are any more specs that could help just let me know and i will add them on.
Looking forward to chatting to everyone!

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Thanks guys

 

Welcome and congrats on the successful startup business! Most activity in this forum is surrounding the US market so we'll be of limited use I fear. To me, it sounds like the brake caliper seized up. I had an old chevy van do this once. I was heading about 3 hours south to pick up an old car and it was pulling a little heavy, but I wasn't really used to the trailer on the back and thought nothing of it. The brakes had overheated so much on the one wheel it locked solid. Honestly I don't remember what all I replaced (I know it wasn't much, I was a poor kid and had to borrow money from the guy I bought the car from!). Anyway, I would take the wheel apart tot he brakes. Even if you haven't done brakes before (they are easy), watch a you tube video or two and get a feel. The only specialty tool you might need is something to spin the calipers back with depending on the brake design. You should be able to see something not right. If you can't, take the other side partially apart too (just remove the wheel, I always keep one side together so I have something to look at to put em back together, more important for drums though) and compare.

 

YouTube is a brilliant idea it shows us how to do most things these days. I am no mechanic but i will give it ago and see how it goes. I can take the wheel off no problem and getting my hands dirty sounds fun, I will look up a YouTube video and give it ago, Hopefully this will be the problem cheap and hopefully easy to fix. I thank you so much for replying tpo my message being as i am kind of in the wrong are!!

Much respect!

 

I have also read that it could be the piston?? that it has seized but then i have also read that the piston won't make the wheel lock up??? I think i'm just jumping ahead a little to much. Break caliper first then i will get back to you. sorry about the 2 messages haha

 

This piston they are talking about is inside the brake caliper actually, so it's just a more specific suggestion of the same thing. There are pistons (one or more, not sure what they use on these honestly) that push the brake pads against the rotor. If the piston is stuck on that will lock the wheel. This can happen if metal gets in the piston, if a brake line gets dirty, or even if a valve upstream in the system gets clogged or broken. Most likely is in the caliper itself IMO. Really only two things can directly stop the front wheel, the brakes or the hub, as they are the only parts that touch the wheel. Frankly it's more likely to be the brakes. But yes, watch some videos and don't get too scared. Disk brakes are pretty easy to work with and great starter wrenching projects. Just make sure you're calculating the cost of keeping the van off the road. If you were to buy a new caliper, brake pads, and rotor you could do the whole job in an hour or two and I'd bet you'd have a good chance to fix it. The "right" way though is to take it apart and confirm where the failure is, both so you aren't just replacing parts that you don't need to but also to get a better understanding of why it failed and to make sure you haven't left something that will just damage the new parts you put on. I'm not a mechanic, I just enjoy working on my old cars and trucks I have.