My front brakes are dragging. I can hear them as I drive plus I have excessive brake dust on them. Since it is both front brakes, I figure there is something more upstream (e.g. master cylinder) rather than both front calipers failing at the same time.

Just looking for some direction before i start digging in. Is there something o need to inspect that is more systemic?

 

A small amount of dragging is normal, just the nature of disc brakes. Extra brake dust on the front is also normal because the front brakes apply before the rear brakes.

That said, I would jack it up in the front and just see if it feels like there is excessive drag when spinning the wheels by hand. If it feels normal then take it for a drive, then do the same test as soon as you park it. You may even leave it running to see if the booster is applying the brakes when you are not pressing the brake pedal.

 

I took the wheels and calipers off to do an inspection. Inside pads were more worn than outside ones but not bad. A couple of the guide pins were badly corroded so I cleaned them all off, sanded the corrosion off and re-lubed them. Also re-applied anti sieze.

Calipers seemed to function just fine - not frozen and no leaks so I’m guessing the guide pins were the issue.