One wheel gets very hot

Klaus · Veteran Member

One wheel gets very hot

Whenarewethere · Guru

Tyre pressure of all four wheels before & after?

BAZZA44 · Senior Member

The first thing I would look at is if one or both bearings are spinning on the axle. There will be marks on the axle and on the inside of the bearing where it touches the axle if this is what is happening. Seems everything else was checked.

Barry

erad · Guru

Check the alignment of the wheel. I have a single axle poptop caravan and since new it has scrubbed tyres. Finally the axle was replaced but it still has what I call excessive toe-in. They tyre has worn better this time, but it is still wearing quicker than the opposite one. It gets warm, suggesting to me that as the tread wears down, there is less 'squish; in the tread to absorb the misalignment.

Is the hot wheel the front one (probably left side)? If so, you may have hit a large pothole and bent the axle.

Possum3 · Guru

As erad has suggested take it to a wheel alignment specialist (most truck aligners can check alignment on caravans).

iana · Guru

If there is a wheel alignment problem, I would rub my hand across and back on the tread of the good tires to get a "feel", then rub my hand flat, across the suspect tire tread, your hand will rub freely in one direction, but tend to grip when rubbing the other way. This will tell if the tire is scrubbing.
Would the park brake be on the offending wheel by any chance? if so if the cables are too tight, the park brake may be causing the brake to be partially on.
Could a magnet be touching the brake drum ?

Radar · Guru

I had a similar problem, maybe not as rash.

The fellow over adjusted one wheel by a bit and it was just binding, the tell tale sign was brake shoe dust on the wheel.

Backed the brake off a bit, all good.

Incidently, I had the caravan brakes adjusted because I thought the brakes could be better, 5000 ks latter a caravan repairer said the brake linings were fine it was the magnets had worn out and that is why my brakes had gone off song.

So question is. Is there brake dust on the wheel.

Tony LEE · Guru

Soon as you pull up (with the wheel squealing) , get that wheel off the ground and see if it is turning freely

Jaahn · Guru

HI smile

Some good suggestion so far. We are shooting in the dark without more information. So I suggest you try to find out if it is the tyre or the hub area or the brake drum. Run it only long enough for it to get a bit hot and then carefully feel the tire and the tread to see if that is hot. Then carefully feel the the center of the hub to see if that is hot and then reach behind and feel the brake drum very carefully. Make an assement of which area is the hottest and then compare it with the others also. Do not burn your fingers or hand by rushing to feel things. cry

This should tell you where to look for a problem. But if it is squeeling then it sounds like metal to metal somewhere and possibly the bearings might be rubbing or the hub is rubbing because things are not sitting in the correct alignment. The axle may be poorly machined. There would be shiny blue marks somewhere, even the side of the drum rubbing on the backing plate.

Good luck Jaahn

Note the van is telling you the problem but the mechanics are not listening and keep looking at the same things. Think out of the box and look at other unlikely things ! hmm

-- Edited by Jaahn on Tuesday 21st of September 2021 08:04:01 AM

-- Edited by Jaahn on Tuesday 21st of September 2021 10:47:36 AM

PeterD · Guru

I suggest there is no sense going back to a mechanic when the brakes are cold. See if you can get someone to look at it whilst it is still hot. Pre-arrange things so he can be prepared to drop things as you arrive and start work on the wheel.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

How tight is the bearing nut ? Squeeling sounds like serious issues !! Is there clearance problems ? Grease well spread through bearings ? When fitted ? Is the bearing a tight fit on axle ?

Klaus · Veteran Member

Thank Barry, that is a great tip, I will check that out.

Klaus · Veteran Member

Thanks Aus Kiwi, The bearing nut was checked, all good. Grease is evenly distributed. But yes same suggestion as Barry I will check if the bearing is slipping on the axel.

Klaus · Veteran Member

I don't recall hitting any big pot holes, the tires are wearing evenly but I will check the axle.

Klaus · Veteran Member

Thank you. The Tires are all even temperature, the heat is in the hub, you would burn your fingers if the metal was touched. I will go through and do the checks you suggested.

Klaus · Veteran Member

Thank you to all of you who replied, the suggestions are good feed back, I will check all the things suggested.

Cheers and happy travels.

oldbloke · Guru

Klaus wrote:
Hi all, I had the wheel bearings etc serviced. The mechanic stated the bearings and brakes were in good order. I told him that one of the 4 wheels gets quite hot, he found nothing wrong but stated he will repack the bearings.
The next trip we went on I found the same wheel became extremely hot, and by the time we covered 200km it was squealing.
I had another mechanic look at it he said the same the brakes showed no sign of over heating, the bearing grease was still in perfect colour no sign of burning or heat induced liquefying through excessive heat?
He checked the brakes they were all good. returning home the wheel was hot after 60km on the open road I never touched the brakes. By the time we got home the wheel was squealing and so hot I could feel the heat 30cm away, the other 3 wheels were mildly warm?
So does any body have any ideas on what could be causing this, I cant keep using the van like this.

You do not clarify if the heat is from the brake drum or bearing. But since bearing grease in not melting bearings problem is unlikely.

Since it is "squealing" I will assume its bakes. Not unusual for brakes to squeal when applied.

Van brakes use a leading shoe system so one pad only needs to be dragging on the drum a little and they will tend to "drag" on further.

A drum will not appear to have over heated unless they have been "smoking" hot so could easily still be brakes.

A. Slacken off the brake adjustment about 4 or 5 clicks. But it could be a missing return spring or crap stopping them from returning to the "off" position as they should.

Alignment. No idea if single or duel axle. But this is very easily checked using a tight plumb line/string and perhaps a ruler. tyres should all be parallel with the body. It isn't rocket science. Crude but effective.

All this comes about because there is no trade requirement to service brakes in the motor truck/car or van industry.

Good luck, it can be very frustrating, I know.

Possum3 · Guru

All businesses that specialise in underbody repairs on trailers or towable recreation vehicles are required to be licensed as a motor vehicle repairer.

However, the people doing the repair work do not need to have a tradespersons certificate so long as the work is being done at the place of business of the licensed repairer and the work is only done on trailers or towable recreation vehicles.

This is because there is no single nationally accredited qualification for repair work on both trailers and towable recreation vehicles that could form the basis of a tradesperson certificate.

Most of the repairs done on trailers and towable recreation vehicles could fit within many classes of repair work.

This would be costly for the repairer to have to get a tradesperson certificate in multiple repair classes to undertake the repairs.

Licensees must also make sure repair work is done with due care and skill under the consumer guarantees of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

While a motor repairer licence isn't required to work on the living area of a caravan, this work is regulated under other existing laws (e.g. electrical wiring work).

www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/trades-and-businesses/construction-and-trade-essentials/motor-repairers

dogbox · Guru

disconnect brake on the offending wheel, take for a drive. if problem still there probably not brake

-- Edited by dogbox on Wednesday 22nd of September 2021 08:09:18 AM

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

erad,
I too have a single axle van & like you had tyres the scrubbed out on one side. While in Warrnambool a couple of years ago now, a local garage did a wheel alignment - with the van connected to the car.
The mechanic's adjuster - a quite large sledge hammer where the axle was bent slightly. Possum mentioned this practice a few years ago in one of his posts.

My issue did not cause any noise, unlike Klaus's problem. To be able to hear the squeal from inside a car indicates a major drama - it's not the due to the handbrake being done up too tight, Klaus?

oldbloke · Guru

dogbox wrote:
disconnect brake on the offending, wheel take for a drive. if problem still there probably not brake

No guarantee but a good idea

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Maybe side of shoes rubbing on drum or backing plate ? Is the actual rim pushing on drum brakes ? When tightened ? Check all rims are the SAME ?

dogbox · Guru

oldbloke wrote:

dogbox wrote:
disconnect brake on the offending, wheel take for a drive. if problem still there probably not brake
No guarantee but a good idea

process of elimination, but still could be brakes if shoe is rubbing drum as mentioned

Klaus · Veteran Member

Some great suggestions, when checked previously there is no brake dust in the brake drum every thing is quite clean so no clogging which prevents brakes from not releasing, tires are not scrubbing or wearing unevenly, axle is not bent, when the wheel is spun it spins freely, same as the other 3. Going by what has been written I will pull the wheel off and check the if the bearing is spinning on the axle.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Check the SIDE of shoes have clearance inside drum ?

lkyphl · Member

A mate had a tandem van with one hot rim, eventually traced to three of the four brake wires having been cut by a stone, which left only one brake working,

Phil

gdayjr · Senior Member

Now that is a distinct possibility.

The hot one, is not the faulty one.

It may well be getting hot, because it is in fact the only one doing all of the work.

erad · Guru

"Some great suggestions, when checked previously there is no brake dust in the brake drum every thing is quite clean so no clogging which prevents brakes from not releasing, tires are not scrubbing or wearing unevenly, axle is not bent, when the wheel is spun it spins freely, same as the other 3. Going by what has been written I will pull the wheel off and check the if the bearing is spinning on the axle. "

If this is the case, it is probably just a wheel bearing which is too tight. Before you loosen the wheel nuts, jack the wheel and check for excessive slackness in the wheel bearing. If you can access the wheel bearing dust cap at this point, then check the bearing - remove the spit pin and slacken the nut by one notch and insert the pin again. See if you have excessive play in the bearing. If it is still OK, there is your problem - it was too tight.

Klaus · Veteran Member

Feed back on the hot wheel problem: I have had the entire undercarriage, rims wheels, axles, brakes bearings checked. All ok, the problem appears to be with the electrical brake system either the controller, receiver or the ESC system. So both van and tug are off to a specialist centre where they can pin point the cause.

Thank you to all for the great suggestions.

PeterD · Guru

Looks like the end is in sight. Please let us know of the outcome.