Tried to do my brakes for the first time and I think I fucked something up. When I tried to drive for a second in the neighborhood, it sounded a bit grindy, and the rotors had these black streaks on them (picture above). Can anyone help figure out where I messed up and suggest steps to sort it out?
I did front rotors, pads and a brake fluid bleed today on a 6th gen Fiesta. The back are drum brakes, so I left them for now.
Edit: Some air in the brake line was keeping the caliper from closing right. Bleeding the brakes a second time, but with help, sorted the problem out! Thanks for all the help.
Yeah, might just need to bed them in. And there could still be manufacturing/protective lubricant on the rotors if OP didn't blast them with brake cleaner before reinstalling the caliper brackets. That should wear off pretty quickly too, though.
I blasted both sides with brake cleaner and rubbed it down with those fancy blue paper towels, then changed gloves since I was paranoid about having greasy stuff on my hands lol
Not only did I fuck that up the first time I did a brake job, but I also didn't fully seat one of the pads on its clips. It fell out on one side, and was just sort of dangling there for a couple of weeks before I realized what had happened. I did not notice a change in stopping power because, well, it was an early 90s Chrysler and it never had all that much to begin with.
That's horrifying lmao.
It's good to remember that people goof up on this kind of stuff when they're new to it. At the end of the day, this is just an old second car that can be fixed when I give it some more time!