Steam coming from right-front wheel

tristanlee85 · 12-15-2003, 09:10 PM

I noticed today when I was droping lunch off at my g/f's work that there was steam coming from the right-front wheel. I checked around my car and that was the only wheel doing it. It's been snowing and I went through some big puddles to get to her work. What is this telling me? I can only think of something to do with my brakes that are getting hot like that.

ProjectSW1 · 12-15-2003, 09:20 PM

mine do that from time to time when its cold

sc2_ct · 12-15-2003, 09:21 PM

Does the steam stop quickly, or keep going until the car cools down? It's possible that you have a small coolant leak or something, but it's probably just water dripping off your rims onto the brake components.

TetsuoMX5 · 12-15-2003, 11:42 PM

How wet was it? It might not be the wheel at all, but some of the stuff on the other side of the fender liner - alternator, power steering pump, etc. Stuff that gets hot and turns water to steam when it gets wet.

Could also just be water on brakes, like sc2_ct said. If the big puddles were on the right side of the road, your right wheels would've gone thru it. The rear would be less likely to do that because there's a lot less braking power on the rear.

tristanlee85 · 12-17-2003, 02:06 AM

Wait. It's the left-front. Sorry about that. I said right-front cause I was looking at the car from the front when I noticed it. Ahh, sorry. Anyway, I went through a deep puddle, but there was quite a bit of water on both sides of the alley.

jeep45238 · 12-17-2003, 06:20 AM

I'm betting you got water on a damned hot rotor.

Simple physics.

Long as your braking wasn't affected, I wouldn't be that worried.