Ford Ka
Driver's side front brake is dragging – can turn wheel by hand but not spin it. Caliper float seems to be as unrestricted as passenger side – easy to push back with a suitable lever. But, after 4 miles of driving drivers side disk is crazy hot and stinks of burning pads, whilst passenger side is merely warm. Disks both run true and there is no modulation on the dragging brake.

I'm thinking master cylinder seals or caliper seals perhaps, but having just replaced disks and pads (the old disk had distorted with the heat generation), I'd like to replace only the faulty item.

Any ideas please?

Strip and lube up the sliders on the calliper and check the piston for corrosion. Then give the brakes a good bleed.

Pads sticking in the caliper, remove pads, clean & grease everything

What andydicko says ^^^^

Bit of a hi-jack.

I changed discs and pads on my fiesta a couple of days ago and managed to put a small tear at the base of one of the rubber piston gaiter/boot on a front caliper.

it's only about 3mm by 5mm, should I have this changed or will it not cause too much grief??

whats been said above but also check where the pad slides on the caliper. If corrosion has built up on the caliper or the pattern pads aren't 100% your pad might not be returning properly.

Yeah, change it or the water & road salt will be in there rusting everything up. Doesn't cost much for a new seal kit.

Could possible be a faulty flexi hose restricting fluid flow. Had you had any work done before it happened? where someone has clamped the hose? KA's are a bit prone to sticking calipers though.

Thanks all. I'm assuming that where the pads sit in the caliper should just be de-gunged – no grease, even copper grease? Comments?

Thanks again.

probably a lot of baked on cack on the pad carriers, light tappin with a small hammer cracks it off, then scrape the rest. The pads should be able to move freely in the carrier afterwards. small amount of copperslip where the pads contact the carrier is good.