Help Series 3 BMW Disc Brake and Wheel assemby Smoking!

[charris]

After a short journey (6 miles) I arrived home and the front right hand wheel was red hot and smoking and obviously smelling too! Has anyone any idea of what the problem might be or had this problem car is just 6 years old only done 30000 miles? It is a 320 diesel thanks!

[gmarks1]

Seized brake caliper?

Gary

[Z4monster]

Sounds like the brake caliper is stuck and binding on the disk. This puts loads of heat into the whole system. It's possible to boil you brake fluid so watch out for that one. If one pad is much thinner thaqn the other then i'd put money on it being just that.

[charris]

Thanks I will check that have you had thisa problem before

[TheEnd]

I currently have this, although not as bad.
One of my calipers is dragging and overheating the disc. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, it doesn't take long until you feel a strong judder.

What i plan is a clean up of the caliper, so that's greasing the sliders with copped grease, and checking/cleaning the piston for corrosion

[bigedd]

Happened to me as well alloy was very hot to touch, striped calliper off and cleaned and lubricated it been alright ever since that was 5 year ago.

[bazking69]

Common fault (one of many...)
I've had both fronts and a rear caliper replaced in the last 2 years...not hugely expensive if you use GSF but annoying that it keeps happening and causing you another issue to sort.

[tom g]

TheEnd said:

I currently have this, although not as bad.
One of my calipers is dragging and overheating the disc. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, it doesn't take long until you feel a strong judder.

What i plan is a clean up of the caliper, so that's greasing the sliders with copped grease, and checking/cleaning the piston for corrosion

never use copper grease on the sliders
it gets very sticky, and the problem returns
only use red or white silicone grease