Im 17 years old and just bought a 1992 integra GS coupe. I love the car but have been noticing that the front wheels are hot as heck after driving for 20 minutes or more. Some other symptoms I have are that the brake pedal is sometimes squishy , sometimes stiff as hell… The rear wheels get warm but not like that, the front get to where it will burn you if you leave your fingers on it for more than a few seconds. Is this normal? i also do smell something after driving the car coming from the front brakes, kind of like a burning plastic smell? What do you think it is? I thought its maybe a caliper sticking, but what can i do to test my brakes to give me a clearer idea. Thanks guys, i’m new to this forum and would appreciate any help.
Honestly I would start by just taking the wheels off, look to see anything obvious. Such as you said “brake pad sticking” would be pretty noticeable. Check brake fluid level and visually inspect rotors. Welcome to the club
i must say… you are already on the right path by coming here are asking a question like this. welcome to the club…
as pkda9 said, start with taking the wheel off and looking around for obvious stuff and no its not normal for it to be that hot. something is definitely dragging. i would say a stuck caliper just from the description. when you take the wheel off spin the hub by hand. it should spin somewhat freely. in fact, you can even do it with the wheel on when you jack up the front of the car.
In addition to what the others already said… I think you should also start paying attention to when the pedal is stiff vs soft. You could have a master cylinder or brake booster which is failing. If one does fail there’s potential for a pretty dangerous situation with your brakes not working or not working well enough. Definitely something to investigate.
