YACT: Screwed up brakes and mysterious leak

[EyeMWing]

'88 GMC Vandura 2500.

Went to move it from one driveway to the other and as I was coming to a stop, I hear my right front go "GRIND GNASH SCRAAAAAAAAAAPE" and immediately proceed to pull it apart to find out WTF happened. Rotor has a huge gash in it. Don't know what happened, didn't have time to investigate. Pads are new, rotor is new - both are about 1 month old. So I put the wheel back on and shuffle the vehicles around again to make room for the Vandura in the work yard. I move it over there and notice that it left a trail of some very black mystery fluid from my right front. Looks like some kind of oil - but it ain't engine oil. Too black and chunky.

When I was moving it to the work space, the right front brakes didn't seem to apply at all. No warning lights (Hey, I'm not even aware of any) either. No ABS on this vehicle. 4-wheel disks. That just about sums it up, eh?

So what should I be looking for when I get the chance to go at it?

 

[Eli]

Should be able to determine the mystery substance by smell.

 

[d33pt]

that fluid is probably brake fluid mixed with brake dust making it very black...

 

[Quixfire]

I would look at the brake hoses and the caliper piston bore(s) for possible leaks. As for the red brake light, that will only come on when you have lost enough brake fuild to effect the system pressure. Don't forget to check the fluid level in the master cylinder.

 

[alkemyst]

a gash is odd, the only two times I have seen that was when someone put a brake pad in backwards and another was they didn't put a spacer back on.

black is not the color of brake fluid unless there are problems 🙁 It could be water mixing with brake dust or brake fluid mixing with dust, though if it was brake fluid it should be pretty obvious on the brakes.