Front wheels hard to turn by hand

**gtr1000** · 16th November 2008, 11:22

Having just fitted new front pads, I was sitting on a slight slope the other day in neutral (auto box) and noticed that when OFF the brakes the car didn't roll forward under its own weight.

Just jacked the car up and it's hard work turning both front wheels by hand so there's a fair amount of "friction" somewhere.

When I did the pads, I did it by the book (Haynes anyway) and the pistons retracted with little or no force. So I'm thinking it's not the brakes binding

. Short of taking the calipers off again, I can't really prove this (and it's peeing down).

So is this resistance acceptable or does the auto box introduce resistance when spinning the wheels? Never noticed this much friction with manual cars.

**gtr1000** · 16th November 2008, 12:26

Update - took n/s caliper off and disc rotates with little effort. Put caliper back on, press brake pedal to take up slack and disc becomes hard to turn (again

). But could this be normal?

Me thinks it could be pistons in calipers (surely not both n/s and o/s) or master cylinder.

Could be looking at loads of dosh to sort this one out

**gtr1000** · 16th November 2008, 13:02

Have searched the forum and came up with this thread http://forum.vectra-c.com/showthread...ticking+brakes

Identical to my problem. But why only since I've changed the pads

Also took the car for a run and the rear discs were warm to the touch but burnt finger on the front discs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**parapaul** · 16th November 2008, 13:11

I wouldn't worry too much about that, around 80% of the braking is done by the fronts.

What pads have you used?

**gtr1000** · 16th November 2008, 13:25

Originally Posted by parapaul

I wouldn't worry too much about that, around 80% of the braking is done by the fronts.

What pads have you used?

Genuine VX ones. Read the old part number off the back of the old ones and got like for like. Also got it confirmed at the VX parts desk.

It's the droning that is a worry - the binding pads are causing the discs to heat up. Have read many threads in the past half hour on "binding brakes" and everything seems to point to the pistons not retracting just that little bit after the brakes are applied.