Brakes heat up on excessive downhill .no one knows

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jazzyjack1, Jan 31, 1:12am
My brakes are fine when you drive to and from work in Auckland, around town.

When I drive up around the Waitakeres (Scenic Drive etc) you start to smell rubber burning - get out of the Jeep and you can see the wheel (or rotor / caliper) is damn hot, the rubber smell is definately coming from the caliper and the rotor has a big burn mark around it.

When I go to Midas / pitt stop they cant see any problem

What is going on here! It on;lt happens when you drive up around areas like Scenic etc.

Is it my calipers getting stuck!
berg, Jan 31, 1:15am
Are you dragging the brakes when going down hill. Try changing down a gear or two when going down hill and using the engine braking to help.
jazzyjack1, Jan 31, 1:25am
Im just using the brakes as I have done with cars (Nissan Primera, Holden Commodore, BMW) and used the same way - no issues with the cars! ON the same roads too! I used with right foot as Im coming into a 25km corner and release again
jazzyjack1, Jan 31, 1:26am
Also the Jeep is a Auto too, should I chnage into 2nd or 1st gear!
berg, Jan 31, 1:28am
Flip auto into 2nd or even 1st if its a slow winding downhill. Remember the Jeep weighs a lot more than the other cars you have listed putting more load on the brakes.
mechnificent, Jan 31, 1:30am
The vehicle will have a fault. The brakes should not get hot around that road even if you had a big trailer on the back.

Take it to a proper mechanic.
ladatrouble, Jan 31, 1:32am
You have some lower quality pads that are great around town,but fade under harder use.By fitting higher quality pads they will work better under hard use,but won't be so good when cold around town.You could go through a lot of pads to find one that suits you.The Bendix 4x4 pads are good - but they did worry me in a panic stop,they seemed to take a little time (milliseconds) to come up to heat,but then really hauled the Pajero in fast.
moosie_21, Jan 31, 2:06am
Stop going to Midas/Pit Stop. Use engine braking more than brakes to slow your descent. Problem solved.
jazzyjack1, Jan 31, 2:11am
So when Im in drive (doing 70kms) I can on the fly slip it into 2nd gear and turn OD off! will this solve my problem!
jazzyjack1, Jan 31, 2:15am
The next one down from Drive is 2, then 1
moosie_21, Jan 31, 2:15am
Cheers, eh!
moosie_21, Jan 31, 2:16am
I doubt you'll want to have it in 2nd over 65km/h. Depends what kind of car you have. O/D off should help a bit. Just don't sit on the brakes the whole way down!
johnf_456, Jan 31, 3:04am
+1
Don't think he has, it is not a brisk down hill ride
saki, Jan 31, 3:27am
brakes get hot caused by friction it happens, dissapating the heat is the main concern, your brakes arent fading as yet so no problem, learn to live with it.
smac, Jan 31, 3:41am
I'll be the voice of dissent here.use brakes for braking, engine for going, that's what they're designed for. There's very few roads in this country that should cause overheating under normal use, I'd say they're dragging for some reason.
berg, Jan 31, 3:45am
Try that on some of the South Island roads while towing a race car on a trailer. You will be without brakes in a flash. Why do you think trucks are fitted with engine brakes and retarders!
smac, Jan 31, 4:01am
If you're towing a race car then you should know exactly what I'm talking about. We're not talking about trucks, and if we were, that would be using the engine (brake) as it is intended.

I'm talking about the false economy and bad physics of using an engine to slow a vehicle instead of the brakes.
richardmayes, Jan 31, 4:02am
Your Jeep's brakes are illustrating the laws of physics.

If you drive a big heavy 4x4 fast and brake heavily and often on a windy, tortuous hill road in the same way as you are used to driving a range of relatively sporty saloon cars, I would imagine cooking the brakes is more or less inevitable!

Though as others have said, maybe there are better pads around than what are in your brakes.!

+1 to smac above also; you need to be sensible about using the gears as for engine braking, i.e. only where you really need to. Why would you flog out your clutch and gearbox to prolong the life of a $100(!) set of brake pads!
vtecintegra, Jan 31, 4:06am
Its pretty easy to cook the brakes in a 4wd by driving in the same manner as you would in a normal car.Hell its easy enough to cook the brakes in a car if you're hard enough them over a windy road.

Anyway why is dropping to an appropriate gear false economy!The user manual for my car says to select a lower gear on steep descents.
berg, Jan 31, 4:10am
200,000kms out of front disc pads in a Rodeo dsl when towing race cars and boats doesn't seem like false economy to me. Rear brakes never needed touching. The bonus of using engine braking on the ute was the brakes were always there when the going turned to custard as opposed to faded and hot at the bottom of hills etc. Never had any gearbox or diff problems eather
smac, Jan 31, 4:15am
Nothing wrong with dropping to an appropriate gear, that should still be done. I'm talking about the practice of slapping into a lower gear for the sole purpose of slowing the engine. It may not have been intended, but some of the posts above seem to be implying the OP should be using the engine only, so the brakes are 'there when you need them". Bollocks.
berg, Jan 31, 4:20am
Never said "don't use the brakes" more "don't ride the brakes". Careful driving to the conditions means not needing to abuse the brakes or vehicle.
johnf_456, Jan 31, 4:24am
+1 use a combination of both
lookoutas, Jan 31, 4:28am
There was one word in the OP that described the problem as soon as I read it.

"Jeep"

They're going to get hot.
mrfxit, Jan 31, 5:33am
Despite the apparent lack of brake fad when hot, there "could" still be a bit of moisture in the brake fluid.
Moisture = Water
Hot water = steam
Steam = fluid expansion
Fluid expansion == less braking effect for peddle pressure & possiblly longer retention of pad pressure on the rotors.

Get the brake system flushed with new fluid.

Also possble theres a build up of dirt in the calipers & the constant usage is making the pads stay "on" for longer = As above