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So I go to get my wheels changed and balanced and I leave with the driver side rim heating up unnaturally even after driving just a few miles.

The car stops unusually quickly. It's quite clear that the brake pads are clutching/seizing on the rotor—even when I'm not pressing the brakes.

My question is: What could have gone wrong? I'm suspecting they messed something up. Would, for example, tightening the bolts far too much lead to pushing the brake pads against the rotor? I see no (brake fluid) leakage, nor any other symptoms, except that they also did a lousy job at balancing the wheels: The steering wheel wobbles starting from 30mph.

Update

It's disappointing that no one recommended not driving the car, or driving it minimally, until the problem is fixed.

I now know that if one continues to drive the car—even for just 50km, the rotor in question will heat up to the point where it will no longer be guaranteed that it is perfectly planar. A simple job of replacing the brake pads and resetting the fluid becomes an expensive replacement of the rotor, the calipers, and the tube leading to the calipers.

Calaf
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3 Answers3

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When you say drivers side, do you mean front or rear? If front, then it could possibly be just bad luck. It's really hard to do sabotage a front caliper so I wouldn't say the shop didn't anything shoddy.

If it's the rear, then how often do you use your parking brake? I know some places will use parking brake even though it is an automatic. It could be that the parking brake line is seized up. If rear I'd take it back to them and see if they could remove the tire and knock the E-brake loose.

L4NC3R
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Recommendation

Rather than second-guess the cause, I would recommend that you take it back to the tire shop and explain to them what you're experiencing.

If you'd rather not...

Clearly something is binding in the brakes and the most obvious thing to do is to remove the wheel and inspect for any kind of obstruction.

Zaid
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Sounds like you just had a speed sensor go bad, Just happens sometimes. It happened to me on my suburban. it caused my front passenger brake caliper to grab and release realy fast.

Akiki
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