Front brakes sticking after progrip install

2017 JKUR, 13,000 miles. Has lived in Texas and Arizona it's whole life. No salt. just completed install of Clayton 3.5" lift and Dynatrac PR44 (after bending the stock Dana 44 on a rain rut that was a hell of a lot nastier than it looked). After getting it all back together I drove it for about a week on my 35's without a steering stabilizer and it was fine. I did the alignment myself with an angle finder and tape measure. 80mph down the interstate was no different than my wife's volvo. I was pretty proud of my alignment job. Installed ProGrip brakes earlier this week, braking was awesome. Took the Jeep down to discount to trade in my 35's for some 37's, hopped on the interstate and was absolutely happy with how the Jeep rode with 37s. Patted myself on the back a little for a job well done. Then at some point I noticed a pull to the right. At first I thought I had the right tire toe'd out somehow. Made an adjustment and took the jeep for a drive and hit a bump and got DEATH WOBBLE at about 20mph. Full stop. I went through every bolt/nut - checked torque and re-measured checked angles. All good. Went back out and drove to a rough section of chipseal road and got death wobble to the point where I nearly lost control of the Jeep. Got back to the house and jacked the jeep up and realized the front brakes were dragging, bad. I think the death wobble was caused by a dragging brake being turned into a singular engaged brake by a bump....somehow.....


So far I have disassembled brakes and made sure caliper was floating on slide pins, re assembled, no change. Disassembled brakes and thought the forging on the dynatrac bracket was conflicting with the piston and not allowing the caliper to float far enough. Ground off a little of the bracket to clear the piston. No change. Took the entire progrip kit off the Jeep and returned everything to OEM. No change. Bled brakes. No change. Re-installed Pro-Grip very carefully...because I was running out of options. No change. The brakes are bound so hard that with the tire off its almost impossible to turn the rotor. With the tire on, a solid "spin" of the tire gets you less than a revolution. I've seen a number of threads about pistons seizing, I don't think that's my issue given age, mileage and environment. The piston pushes back in with normal resistance. Open to any ideas. I've done a lot of brake jobs and I've run out of ideas on diagnosing this. I can swap in new calipers for shits and giggles but I'd rather not light my money on fire.

With all that you have done and rechecked, seems like you have something applying pressure to the brake line. The only thing I can think of, since you bled the lines, would be the ABS system for that caliper? Seems like you would have gotten a warning light and/or a code.


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I don't see how death wobble could be caused by your brakes dragging. Have you rechecked all your torque settings and joints for movement? Might need to get someone to help turn the wheel back & forth while you're under the Jeep.

Could you have a pinched brake line somewhere that's causing the piston to stick?

Is this on both front brakes? If so, unlikely that it's a caliper.

Here's what you can do to be sure. Hit the brakes a few times and get them to lock up again. Jack up the Jeep. Turn the wheel by hand to see if they are locked up or binding. If they are binding, open the bleeder screw on the caliper (fluid will drip out obviously). With the bleeder open, attempt to turn the wheel again. If the wheel is still locked up or binding, your caliper is failed. If wheel spins freely with the bleeder open, there's something else wrong with the brake system.

At that point, if it's only on one side, it's likely a bad hose. If both sides, it's probably something that both sides commonly share like a master cylinder, ABS module, etc.

How soon after the tire installment did this symptom occur?

Oh, and did you try spinning the hubs with the brakes removed? As in making sure there isn't a wheel bearing, axle, or driveshaft issue?

If both front brakes are dragging more than normal, could it be a proportioning valve?

Ddays said:

I don't see how death wobble could be caused by your brakes dragging. Have you rechecked all your torque settings and joints for movement? Might need to get someone to help turn the wheel back & forth while you're under the Jeep.

Could you have a pinched brake line somewhere that's causing the piston to stick?

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I don't really see how either but I have checked everything front to rear and had the wife wiggle/turn the wheel while I was under the jeep. Everything is tight. And I may be describing death wobble incorrectly, having never experienced the actual. It's an incredibly violent shudder.

WJCO said:

Is this on both front brakes? If so, unlikely that it's a caliper.

Here's what you can do to be sure. Hit the brakes a few times and get them to lock up again. Jack up the Jeep. Turn the wheel by hand to see if they are locked up or binding. If they are binding, open the bleeder screw on the caliper (fluid will drip out obviously). With the bleeder open, attempt to turn the wheel again. If the wheel is still locked up or binding, your caliper is failed. If wheel spins freely with the bleeder open, there's something else wrong with the brake system.

At that point, if it's only on one side, it's likely a bad hose. If both sides, it's probably something that both sides commonly share like a master cylinder, ABS module, etc.

How soon after the tire installment did this symptom occur?

Oh, and did you try spinning the hubs with the brakes removed? As in making sure there isn't a wheel bearing, axle, or driveshaft issue?

Click to expand...

Not sure how long after tire install. Within a day or two. I can't pinpoint when I began to notice the pull. Went out to the garage this morning and both wheels spun freely. I have checked with the calipers off, no restrictions elsewhere in the drivetrain. Hammered on the brakes a few times and it went back to barely getting 3/4 of a turn out of the wheel. Opened the brake bleeder...no change. I have a new set of brake lines sitting in a box and O'Reilly's has calipers in stock. I would find it very unlikely that both calipers failed at the same time, but just as unlikely that an ABS module or something else has also coincidentally failed. I think I'm going to swap calipers and lines and see if that gets me anywhere....

I'm no jedi on brake systems, but maybe the master cylinder is getting stuck and not letting pressure off the front lines. Or something is jacked with the brake linkage from the pedal to the master? I haven't swapped out a JK master so I don't know exactly how's it rigged up.

If both fronts bleed the same... I’m guessing a faulty piston.

Replaced both calipers and viola!...no more dragging brakes. I don't exactly understand what happened. However, the Jeep still pulls to the right since the install of the STT Pros. Going to take it to get actual alignment numbers and go from there. Hopefully my brake drama is over with.

BigBad408 said:

Replaced both calipers and viola!...no more dragging brakes. I don't exactly understand what happened. However, the Jeep still pulls to the right since the install of the STT Pros. Going to take it to get actual alignment numbers and go from there. Hopefully my brake drama is over with.

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Very weird. Do you do your own oil changes? Hope some shop didn't accidentally contaminate your brake fluid with PS fluid or something, it can happen and will swell the seals. Just strange that both calipers failed at the same time.

I do all my own work, I don't have enough faith in humanity to let someone else work on one of my vehicles. My wife's Volvo is the only car I've ever had any work done on outside of my garage. That being said, agreed. Very Very strange.

This really does seem strange. Please post up on any related developments. Seems odd that both would fail at the same time. We all can learn from other's experiences.

I experienced a similar problem when I installed this kit about 6 years ago right after it came on the market. My right front caliper would seize. I end up replacing it and discover corrosion on the piston which was causing the binding. I had the same thing happen when I replaced the brake pads about 1.5 years ago with the left rear caliper. The big difference is that my JK is an ‘07 and lived half of its life in New England.

Do you want caused both front calipers to fail?

MattAlpha said:

I experienced a similar problem when I installed this kit about 6 years ago right after it came on the market. My right front caliper would seize. I end up replacing it and discover corrosion on the piston which was causing the binding. I had the same thing happen when I replaced the brake pads about 1.5 years ago with the left rear caliper. The big difference is that my JK is an ‘07 and lived half of its life in New England.

Do you want caused both front calipers to fail?

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If I were diligent I would have disassembled the calipers to figure out what happened, but I just took them to get my core charge back. I’m wondering if the kit in some way adds stress/geometry that takes an “almost problem” to a problem”. And while I say mine has lived in Texas and Arizona, it has seen its share of water and muddy/silty hole crossings during NC wheeling trips. And the weekend I bent the axle it was actually muddy in the desert. Maybe some grit in the right place and then me pushing the piston back in caused it to bind up.

The cause on both of my failed calipers (several years apart) was corrosion build up on the external portion of the caliper pistons. When I pressed them back in to allow the new pads to be installed, the corrosion caused the pistons to bind in the caliper.

In my opinion you probably had a similar issue.

The brake kit is awesome and I’m still very happy with mine.