88 Civic Hatchback, standard transmission, Front wheel drive.

when I bought it, they said the brakes lock up after running for a while...Locked up on the way home....

Description of Locking UP: driving....speed slowly starts to decrease...brakes gradually get firmer and firmer...finally comes to a complete stop... Will finally release after about 25 min....and will be fine

Got it home...cleaned the screen in the Master cylinder and seemed to solve the problem...locked up again after being on the freeway a couple weeks later...

Took the screen completely out.....Looked up again after being on the freeway.....


Finally replaced the master Cylinder and bled the brake lines, replaced break fluid


took for a test drive....NOT on the freeway, locked up after about 7 min of driving...let it sit for 30 min..locked up again after about 3 min of driving...

Currently Sitting in a parking lot where it last locked up about 10 min ago....



ANY SUGGESTIONS?

 

Try to see what wheels are hotter than others. This might give you a clue.

 

Just got it home....the front right brake's temp was about 320 and the left was 250....brakes seemed very firm on the drive back....

 

Thought it has four wheels, though If rear wheel are not that hot, looks like you are looking into front right. Look for stuck piston or tight pads.
And I hope you are talking farenheit, not celsius.

 

back brakes weren't hot...should have included that...yes i was talking about Fahrenheit ....rofl rofl......looks like ill check the front brakes....we took apart the back brakes this weekend to find the ebrake cable and adjust it and they seem to be doing fine....


thanks for the help...

 

does it do it with your foot not even on the brake while driving? or does it do it after you apply your brakes then let off?

 

does it without the foot on the brake.....

 

After talking to some people, my father's friend said its the Power Brake booster......Which makes sense. His friend said he had a forklift that had the same problem. He also said if I unscrew the bleed valve it will loosen up, which seems to be exactly what our symptoms are...so I'm going to replace that and ill let you know if it worked.

 

I can't really match it to what you were saying about temps, unless your rear brakes are completely out of order...

 

I was looking on the internet and the normal temp for a disk brake is about 300 degrees, the 100 degrees off that it was could be because the point and shoot thermometer that i was using isn't to accurate. And plus, i think the only reason that the brakes are getting hot is because they are locking up right? and the problem of locking up would be the Brake booster.