Whats up guys, long time no post! I recently had to change the rear pads on the wife's '06 Pathy and now there's an issue.

The rear pads needed changing so I bought a new set and a friend and I changed them. I did the passenger side with no issues but my buddy had a slight complication with the the driver side. He said the pads didn't go in as smoothly as they should have but he never had to bang on it or anything. Now when you stop, you smell a metallic burning smell. Now squeals, no brake fade, nothing to make you think there's an issues except the smell.

I took it to my other friend's shop just a while ago and pulled the DS tire off for a closer inspection. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary but the pads looked odd. See pic...



You can see where the pad looks like it's not making FULL contact with the rotor. Not sure why? I went ahead and swapped the pads around, put the inside on the outside and vice versa. Everything went back together just fine but when i got home I could still smell that metallic burning smell. Any ideas on what's going on and what I can do to fix it?

My first guess would be that the brakes aren't released as they should be and it smells because the brakes are overheated.

Taavi wrote:My first guess would be that the brakes aren't released as they should be and it smells because the brakes are overheated.

Thats what I was thinking as well but everything seems to move with ease...? The fact that everything looks fine, besides the smell, has me puzzled.

make sure you wire brush out the torque member and REMOVE the harware and brush underneath. Corrosion and crap build up under there and make the pads fit tight. You should neverseize the ends. Also make sure the sliders are free, but I don't think thats your issue, cause it looks like the pad is cocked. Also looks like they're riding on the ring of corrosion on the inner circle of your rotor...

OK, I went back out to the shop to look into the issue further since swapping the pads didn't work. This time the pads had a wear pattern different from before, they look almost normal...



I removed the hardware kit and cleaned them up. They looked fine to mine. Pic is BEFORE I cleaned them.


The only thing I came across that may be an issue is the bottom bolt on the caliper didn't want to loosen. It seems like it wants to loosen but...doesn't. It was very stubborn so I quit turning on it.




I put everything back together and when i got home, didn't smell anything. I'll see what the wife says tomorrow.

Looks like it's fixed, whatever it was. The wife called this morning after she got to work and said the smell was gone! Thanks for the input guys!

happy wife, happy life...