Brakes binding when warm- brake light always on

[livesanuk]

1978 Spider 124 Just out of the shop. Brake booster and front calipers, pads & rotors were replaced. Total cost=$1700. I got the car about 5 miles from the shop when the brakes start to bind so badly, I have to stop and let them cool for 20 minutes before the car will move again. The brake light is always on. The shop said to bring it back so they can adjust them. Now they're saying the REAR brakes are "metal on metal" and the exhaust is loose causing tension on the ebrake cable. This wasn't happening when I brought the car in for repairs. I'm not technical but trying to learn. Any opinions? I'm not confident this shop knows what they're doing. (Especially since they also neglected to reassemble the air filter on the carb. They had to drive it out & put it back on in a parking lot!) If you can't read it it sys $466 next to brake booster!

[So Cal Mark]

holy moly, that's alot to pay for those repairs. You'll need to determine if all 4 wheels are locking up or just the rear. If all 4 are locking, expect the pushrod in the new master cylinder to be misadjusted. If it's just the rear, it could be the e brake cable. That's a common problem. For that amount, I'd think they would have replaced all of the brakes and e brake cable along with the hydraulics. Didn't they test drive the car after making repairs?

[mbouse]

wowzers! they certainly saw you coming.

i just redid the entire system on the '78 excluding steel lines for under $600 in parts. that includes a used brake booster, new master cylinder, new soft lines, rebuilt rear calipers, and NOS front calipers, new slotted/drilled front rotors, new standard rear rotors, new pads front and rear.

I'd be thinking of a different shop if i were you, and any work these guys did would be SUPERVISED and at no cost to you. you got hosed. i hope you kept the old parts, cuz i want that brake booster.

they didn't even LOOK at the rear pads before they returned the car to you? that is just NOT right.

additionally, there's no way the exhaust would put that much strain on the E-brake cable to lock up both rear brakes.... the exhaust pipe just is not that heavy. though a bound up E-brake cable could cause the calipers to bind....but you should have noticed that when you drove the car to the shop.

[livesanuk]

UPDATE: Figured I'd let you all know how it turned out: I returned the car to the shop (It took 4 trips due to the breaks binding every few miles, waiting an hr, trying again.) The shop owner assured me it was the exhaust hanging on the cable & my rear brakes metal on metal. He corrected the exhaust issue for free. By wrapping it up w some bailing wire. (seriously) Off I go just happy to have it fixed. Well, you can guess the end of that story. This time the owner was kind enough to have it towed back. A few days later he called me back & apologized. The master cylinder had not been properly adjusted. He corrected the issue. He put rear brake pads on @ no charge as a "sorry". Not many people admit their mistakes. (Especially after being so sure he was right.) & I did appreciate that. I will not be taking my car to them again, however.

[rlux4]

You're right, I don't know how many times a shop has obviously screwed something up and then refused to admit fault. It's great that he did. It's also a good decision not to go there again.
Ron

[So Cal Mark]

glad to hear it's fixed