CapnMericaMyCopilot
Member
Hey guys! Been a while but I could really use some ideas on what the issue could possibly be on my 2017 JKU with Dynatrac Progrips. Unfortunately since moving to Miami it has become purely a 'daily driver', but since August of 2021 it's been mostly driveway bound. At this point I think I've done just about everything I can myself in the driveway and think next step will be to have it towed to a shop. I've done alotta chasing on this so figure best to just list it out in steps.
1. Back in December 2020 had to make a trip for work about 160 miles each way. On trip there, with destination in sight, light turned from red to green and went into limp mode when I tried to accelerate. Parked at destination, ran Jscan and it was a wheel sensor (I believe rear). After my meeting I disconnected battery, code cleared and drove home with no issues.
2. Dec. 202- Aug 2021: Continued driving as normal but just constantly felt like I had a slight pull towards the driver side. With work telling me I would start making more site visits to projects and driving to office up in Tampa I wanted to figure out what was going on and assumed it was an alignment issue. The last work/upgrade that had been done was trackbar and draglink up front so seemed reasonable it could be alignment issue (despite being done pre-pandemic). At the time it was aligned with steel angle on each rotor and tape measure.
3. Aug. 2021: Found a local Jeep specific shop- being in Miami, I made sure to find one with builds and who's employees used them out on trails. Got an appointment and went to make the relatively short drive to bring it in. Cruising along about 70 on the highway, Jeep suddenly decides to make as close to a 90 deg. turn towards driver side without rolling. Fortunately I was able to maintain control and there weren't vehicles next to me in any of the lanes. Once again I was close to my destination so limped it rest of the way to shop on the shoulder.
4. Shop looked it over. Scan showed no codes or history of codes. Alignment was withing spec. Front driver side caliper was completely frozen to the point they had to actually cut everything off because the heat had fused the bolts. Both front calipers were replaced as well as pads. Unfortunately, due to shortages, we couldn't get rotors and their advice was just drive it home and limit my driving until I could replace them.
5. Aug. 2021-February 2022: I placed order for replacement rotors immediately, but they were backordered. Got one in January and the other in February. I replaced both fronts as well as pads because they were already completely shot. During this time frame since leaving the shop I never had the Jeep over 40 mph and driving was limited to local errands no more than 10 miles from home.
6. Upon replacing rotors, the front driver side still would not spin freely. With piston manually depressed it would but as soon as peddle was used it would lock up. So I ordered new extended brake hoses and waited for another backordered part to arrive. I got those installed and still no change.
7. With the new brake hoses not fixing the issue I picked up a new caliper and installed. Once again no change.
8. Next up was a new wheel bearing and hub assembly. I thought this could be the issue because the rotor would partially spin for a portion of its circumference then get locked up which to me meant something was skewed. This also doubled to replace wheel speed sensor in case that was the issue. This seemed to help slightly but driver side still does not spin freely as the passenger. (I was able to confirm the rotor gripping for only a portion after it rained one night so there was very light coating of rust that rubbed off on pads for only segment of rotor).
9. So now I feel like I've exhausted just about everything I can try in my driveway to get this fixed. I just want to make sure I am not overlooking something simple or some safety feature that could be locking it up. My next thought is to take the caliper mounting bracket from the passenger side (since I know this side works) and see if putting it on the driver's side alleviates the issue. Maybe the rotor as well in case I got a bad one.
A few notes:
I've bled the brakes so many times during this process so I know it is all new fluid.
I noticed on the driver side when tightening the caliper to bracket that if I 'snug' the bolts it seems to spin relatively free and I can still move caliper on slides by hand. But as soon as I torque to spec, is when it locks up- I can almost see the caliper/pads shift vertically off axis- this is why I am thinking maybe it is the mounting bracket?
Thanks guys, hoping someone might have something to offer so I can enjoy driving again, or just even confirm it is time for that tow into the shop. If there is a missing piece of info or picture that might help let me know and I can provide.
1. Back in December 2020 had to make a trip for work about 160 miles each way. On trip there, with destination in sight, light turned from red to green and went into limp mode when I tried to accelerate. Parked at destination, ran Jscan and it was a wheel sensor (I believe rear). After my meeting I disconnected battery, code cleared and drove home with no issues.
2. Dec. 202- Aug 2021: Continued driving as normal but just constantly felt like I had a slight pull towards the driver side. With work telling me I would start making more site visits to projects and driving to office up in Tampa I wanted to figure out what was going on and assumed it was an alignment issue. The last work/upgrade that had been done was trackbar and draglink up front so seemed reasonable it could be alignment issue (despite being done pre-pandemic). At the time it was aligned with steel angle on each rotor and tape measure.
3. Aug. 2021: Found a local Jeep specific shop- being in Miami, I made sure to find one with builds and who's employees used them out on trails. Got an appointment and went to make the relatively short drive to bring it in. Cruising along about 70 on the highway, Jeep suddenly decides to make as close to a 90 deg. turn towards driver side without rolling. Fortunately I was able to maintain control and there weren't vehicles next to me in any of the lanes. Once again I was close to my destination so limped it rest of the way to shop on the shoulder.
4. Shop looked it over. Scan showed no codes or history of codes. Alignment was withing spec. Front driver side caliper was completely frozen to the point they had to actually cut everything off because the heat had fused the bolts. Both front calipers were replaced as well as pads. Unfortunately, due to shortages, we couldn't get rotors and their advice was just drive it home and limit my driving until I could replace them.
5. Aug. 2021-February 2022: I placed order for replacement rotors immediately, but they were backordered. Got one in January and the other in February. I replaced both fronts as well as pads because they were already completely shot. During this time frame since leaving the shop I never had the Jeep over 40 mph and driving was limited to local errands no more than 10 miles from home.
6. Upon replacing rotors, the front driver side still would not spin freely. With piston manually depressed it would but as soon as peddle was used it would lock up. So I ordered new extended brake hoses and waited for another backordered part to arrive. I got those installed and still no change.
7. With the new brake hoses not fixing the issue I picked up a new caliper and installed. Once again no change.
8. Next up was a new wheel bearing and hub assembly. I thought this could be the issue because the rotor would partially spin for a portion of its circumference then get locked up which to me meant something was skewed. This also doubled to replace wheel speed sensor in case that was the issue. This seemed to help slightly but driver side still does not spin freely as the passenger. (I was able to confirm the rotor gripping for only a portion after it rained one night so there was very light coating of rust that rubbed off on pads for only segment of rotor).
9. So now I feel like I've exhausted just about everything I can try in my driveway to get this fixed. I just want to make sure I am not overlooking something simple or some safety feature that could be locking it up. My next thought is to take the caliper mounting bracket from the passenger side (since I know this side works) and see if putting it on the driver's side alleviates the issue. Maybe the rotor as well in case I got a bad one.
A few notes:
I've bled the brakes so many times during this process so I know it is all new fluid.
I noticed on the driver side when tightening the caliper to bracket that if I 'snug' the bolts it seems to spin relatively free and I can still move caliper on slides by hand. But as soon as I torque to spec, is when it locks up- I can almost see the caliper/pads shift vertically off axis- this is why I am thinking maybe it is the mounting bracket?
Thanks guys, hoping someone might have something to offer so I can enjoy driving again, or just even confirm it is time for that tow into the shop. If there is a missing piece of info or picture that might help let me know and I can provide.
