Questions and Answers

Accord Burning Brakes Q. Hey there, I am the guy with the 1992 Honda Accord LX with about 165,000. My wife was driving the car today and noticed these symptoms. Sometimes when she is cruising in traffic and lets go of the gas pedal the car will either come to a complete stop as if she is hitting the brake but in reality she never touches the brake pedal.

Or the car acts normal and crawls a bit. This happens more frequently now!!! Also, today, she was driving home and again it felt like she was pressing the brake and noticed smoke coming from the wheels. When she pulled over to the side of the highway, both of her front wheel hubcaps had fallen off and both front inside brakes appeared red as if they were burning.

Finally at about 162,000 miles I had to replace the master cylinder at a authorized Honda dealer. If you can help me with any advice before I go to the shops, I would greatly appreciate.

A. It sounds like something is causing the front brakes to lock up. Since I doubt that both front calipers went bad at the same time, I would have to look at the master cylinder, regardless of how old it is. New doesn't always mean good.

Another possibility is the front brake lines have collapsed. This becomes more likely if they were pinched off for any reason.

When the master cylinder was replaced, was the master cylinder push rod adjusted? If it wasn't, and it should, then it's possible the master cylinder is not fully returning and hold pressure in the front brake circuit.

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