Hey. First of all I have a 1998 Honda Civic SI(EX:US) with 150,000KM. Just recently my car was acting very poorly while going home from work. It was like I was driving on molasses was the best way to describe it. The next day I drove 2km to work revving my car in 1st gear just to get to my parking spot. when I exited the vehicle my left wheel was smoking! The caliper was seized against the rotor. And both sides were doing it at the same time. The left was worse than the right. With help from a co-worker, a couple days later, I replaced the brake pads. No rotor damage. Anti seized the metal caliper brackets and removed any rust that could be causing expansion due to heat. and anti seized the metal caliper brackets and everything seemed fine within the braking system. a few days after that crusing around with a friend the same thing happened. its as if I drive 5 km the calipers slowly start to brake on it's own. and the only temporary fix I know is to stop the car. pump the pedal and hopefully it unseized itself. It seems as if both calipers are closing at the same time.. it's random but it seems to happen after 5km or so of driving. Does anyone have any ideas? I hope it isn't anything expensive as some friends mentioned the master brake cylinder. One mentioned taking the boots of the caliper and making sure there is no rust or water in there. and another friend mentioned my calipers might be shot.. Anyway any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm pretty much mechanically illiterate and running out of ideas on what the problem may be. Thanks for reading my short novel! lol

 

Bump. Anyone? Any ideas?

 

Has anyone been under the hood lately? It sounds like a contamination issue, caused by putting any substance other than brake fluid into the reservoir. That will ruin your entire hydraulic braking system and cause symptoms like you have. Another thing that will make the brakes drag is if the pedal can't come all the way back up, for example the brake light switch or power booster is out of adjustment.

If it were just one wheel I'd say faulty caliper or hose but that's not going to happen on both sides at once. Unless the car had been sitting unused for months allowing the calipers to rust up.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'm just writing down every possible problem and hopefully going to get some help on the subject. I'm going to lube the (i think they are called) side pins connected to the caliper and make sure there is no rust or water in the boot tonight. It's funny the problem will come randomly. ussually after a few miles of driving.

 

If it matters at all. The e-brake light has been coming on. Only in the colder months of the year and has been re occuring for the past 2 years. I doubt it has any connection but I thought i would let you know. The e brake works fine. and I use it every day. normally :P

 

The light also comes on when the brake fluid level is low and (on some models) when there is a pressure imbalance in the system. And of course when the hand brake handle is not all the way down, but that's only one of the things it's connected to.

 

I haven't let any mechanics look under the hood. But I'm starting to think i will have to let them fix it. I'll lube the side pins tomorrow, And if that doesn't fix it. I'll get a friend to replace the proportional valve. IF that doesn't fix it than i'll have to get a mechanic to look at it unfortunately. Thanks mk378