Brakes seized up

[drothgeb]

Yesterday my brakes seized up on the drivers side front. On the way to work I noticed a wiff of something burning but didn't find anything when looking over my vehicle. After driving to a job site, on the way back I started to hear a really loud and obnoxious metal on metal sounding scraping. It got really bad right before dropping off my buddy at his house. The sound would disappear when braking but was unbearable when accelerating or coasting. Of course I didn't have my wrenches/sockets on me from moving the night before but he luckily had a tool chest.
Well I figured it was brakes and took off the wheel. Sure enough the rotor and caliper were too hot to touch but I got them off with some sore hands. The pads were still in good condition but looked like they'd been dragging. I cleaned up everything (lots of new brake dust) and hosed everything down in brake cleaner and worked the pistons. Everything worked alright and now the noise seems to have gone.

What would've caused the brakes to do this? I sometimes haul a trailer with mowers or landscaping equipment and I'm guessing that may be it...

Any help? Thanks in advance

 

[specialized7]

do you grease the slide pins everytime you do a brake job?

i had this issue on my moms tracker, except that thing hardly had enough power to move it and it was very dangeropus in the winter because rear wheel drive and the front locking up means your gonan fishtail.

 

[drothgeb]

I usually grease the slides every other oil change. The brakes are still squeaking slightly. They never did before yesterday.

 

[drothgeb]

Time to bleed the system and change the pads/rotors as a safety precaution?

 

[jremington59]

If it locks up again I'd replace the caliper.

 

[drothgeb]

That should be done in pairs right? Any performance calipers/brakes that would be good to switch to at that point?

 

[Wray-Wray]

yes calipers rotors and pads should all be done in pairs......i could not find any performance calipers but i did find drilled and slotted rotors from brembo advanced auto sells them but you haft to order them from the web site they are very very expensive...otherwise i would have bought a pair......

 

[dfisher8871]

on my mounty the one caliper was dragging and not releasing so i replaced the caliper and pads and it still did it. i then i found out that the break line hose can break down in side and can prevent the perisher from being released. just food for thought if it still dose it after you replace that stuff