Rear wheel burning smell.

[123Drive!]

Noticed a burning smell from my right rear wheel recently. I put my hand on the alloy and it felt hot. All the other wheels are stone cold!

Do you think it's the rear caliper binding? Or rear brake not adjusted properly? If the former, how much do you think I will be looking at?

The Jazz is 11 yrs old with 110,000 miles. Thanks in advance!

[geoffchats]

My guess, as a reasonably clued-up happy amateur, is that you have either a binding brake or a worn-out wheel bearing. Have you tried getting the car on a very slight downwards slope and seeing if the car will roll freely with all brakes off? And is there any grinding noise, even slight, when the car is being driven? Worth trying and listening. My hunch would be it's a sticking/binding brake piston...

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[Jocko]

Sounds like a seized calliper to me. More likely the slide rather than a piston so a clean up may be enough. It depends what it has done to the pad; replacement pads may be required. If it is just a sticky slide, I would do the other side at the same time, especially if you end up fitting new pads.

[123Drive!]

Sounds like a seized calliper to me. More likely the slide rather than a piston so a clean up may be enough. It depends what it has done to the pad; replacement pads may be required. If it is just a sticky slide, I would do the other side at the same time, especially if you end up fitting new pads.

I had the pads replaced in September...not sure if the adjustment of the handbrake has any thing to do with this?

[Jocko]

If it has worn away the pad, whether it is calliper or cable, unfortunately, you may end up having to replace them again.

[sparky Paul]

Sadly, Jocko's spot on.

Again, I suspect someone has replaced the pads without cleaning all the scale from the calipers. They really do need to be spotless these Jazz calipers, or the new pads will stick.

[Westy36]

Do you think it's the rear caliper binding? Or rear brake not adjusted properly? If the former, how much do you think I will be looking at?

The Jazz is 11 yrs old with 110,000 miles. Thanks in advance!

I don't know if you have any DIY skills or the time or the tools, but I can say that this job could be done for free, or parts only. Search the forum as it has lots of posts on replacing the components and there is a Youtube video that helps. I do not consider myself a mechanic, somewhat similar to geoffchats description of "a reasonably clued-up happy amateur", but I managed to replace the rear discs and pads on our Jazz. 

[123Drive!]

An update. The rear caliper has been replaced as it has seized. £160 at my local independent garage. So far so good but only problem is that I now need to paint it back to yellow ....! Thanks again everyone.