Heres the deal. I was driving yesterday when one of my passengers noticed a weird smell coming from my rear wheel. I went to check the wheel and it was red hot. So today I jacked it up and took the wheel off and spun the rotor and it was definitely dragging. I gave the caliper a few light smacks with a rubber mallet (from the back of the caliper, not the side) and then the rotor spins nice. I go and push the brakes in and go back and spin the rotor again. Sure enough its dragging again. I give it a little bump with the rubber mallet and its fine again. It does the same thing when I pull and release the parking brake. I removed the caliper and sprayed some brake cleaner, cleaned and regreased the sliders put it back together and its still doing it. I took it off a again and tried turning the piston back in and it took a hell of lot of effort to get it to go which makes me wonder why tapping it with a rubber mallet makes it release so easy. Any ideas? Do I need a new caliper? Thanks.
sounds like a seized caliper