Took truck out for a ride and stopped for gas. I smelled Brakes and upon inspection found the left rear brake pads were not releasing. Any take on what could be holding it? 2008 F-250.

 

Check things in this order:

Brake hose
Caliper slide pins
Caliper.

The hose is hard to check, but they can go bad and cause the hose to act as a one way valve. Next time the caliper locks up, brake the bleeder loose on the caliper, if it shoots fluid at ya its more than likely the hose. If the slide pins are all gummed up they won't let the caliper slide. Try pushing the caliper back in with a c clamp and if it takes a lot of effort, it probably needs replaced.

 

X2 what Mike said. The rear disc trucks are notorious for this especially in the lovely salt belt. Another item to check would be the rear axle backing plates. The pins for the e-brake shoes will rust out, pull through and then grind up with the rotor. This will cause the e-brake shoe to get jammed up because its now floating around and it will burn...nice design! I'm due for new backers waiting for warmer weather. As a temp fix I used regular anchor pins from a drum brake set up with large OD small ID fender washers as a backer. I'm having the new ones nickle plated.

 

i just posted this below a little bit ago on a similar thread, i'd make sure that the pads are not hanging in the pad guides first.
My '08 F-250 has had a significant brake drag issue multiple times. It's not a caliper problem. Each of my fronts have dragged / hung up, and its happened on each of my rears twice each. The problem is the brake shoes(pads) corrode and stick in the guides. If you have this same problem you have to remove the guides and clean them up. I actually had to hammer the pads out of the guides to remove them. Even if you clean them up, and lubricate them you need to keep your attention on them because the brake heat combined with the pad/caliper dust will generally degrade the lube and cause the corrosion and sticking to return.

The number one cause is the truck sitting a lot. Mine sits ALOT, I only use it to pull the camper, and that's only about 15 times/year. After sitting the other primary cause is salt accelerated corrosion as cited by Senix above.

If mine keeps doing it I'm going to modify the pad guides with some slots to better hold grease, and start experimenting with high temp grease.[/QUOTE]

 

Hey, good timing - my left rear was hanging up last night. I had a feeling it was for a while, but got so bad I couldn't ignore it anymore.

Has anyone got a picture or diagram of how the little clips go on the brake pads?

Mine were so far rusted the whole thing just disintegrated when I disassembled it. Yeah, I could take the other side off and use it as a reference, I'll probably get to changing that side this weekend, but right now I need the truck for tonight.

TIA...

 

Alright so I have to add some commentary and my updated opinion. I posted above in this thread that I believed that my brake dragging issue was pretty much an issue with pads sticking in the guides. I wasn't really of the opinion that the calipers were a problem, but I have had my opinion corrected. My rear brakes dragged again, this was the third time. When I pulled the calipers off, the pads popped right off the rotors with only the force provided by those chincy little spring clips, so the pads were definitely not stuck. I decided to take the truck in to Ford dealer and they ended up replacing both rear calipers and the pads too. The rubber boots on the caliper pistons had degraded on both LH and RH sides and what was very likely happening is moisture was getting in past the boots to the piston travel area, corroding, and causing the pistons to seize.

I remain convinced that all my troubles started as a result of the first instance of the brake drag which was caused by stuck pads. Unfortunately that incident, I believe caused the degradation of the boots on the calipers leading to further trouble down the road.

I should be all sorted out now, time and miles will tell. Ended up costing me my time to have the rear brake assys off three times and $100 which is the deductible on my extended warranty for Ford to replace the parts.

Some addtl. Info and opinions on brake caliper sticking on this post: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-sticking.html

 

I have the same problem!!! I replaced both rear calipers about 8 months ago. Last week I had my local mechanic replace my water pump. He also checked my alignment because the new tires he installed 5,000 miles ago had some wear showing. He called me and told me that my left rear was hung up again. He replaced it again. I'm just going to pull my calipers clean and lube them a couple times a year. I would like my calipers to last as long as my pads.


Russ,
05 f-350 4x4 6.0 crew cab DRW . 320,000 miles, still running original Transmition.

 

I had both calipers under warranty hang up at 25000 miles then another last month at 35000 miles. Pistons seem to freeze up. I replaced with a reman ford caliper from Napa with a lifetime guarantee on this one

 

Mine ended up being the slides, but I had taken so long to get to it that the caliper was junk. Didn't realize that those things had what looked like ceramic pistons? One had a chunk out of it...

 

[/QUOTE]

I have used a high temp anti seize on my fronts!! It is made from copper, and is a jar with a brush in it. It has a temperature rating of 1000 degrees. I can't remember where I bought it, but so far so good.

 

They will still seize with copper anti seize. I just had replaced the LR bracket on my truck last summer and copper anti seize was used. When I took it apart this spring the caliper slide was locked up solid.