Pulling to one side?

harveyp6 said:
Start interchanging things side to side, start with the tyres, then pads, then discs, testing after each item has been done to see when it either pulls up straight, or the other way. The bottom link strut is more likely to have the ball joint with excess play than the rear bush doing the same. I'ts not necessarily a case of replacing everything, rather finding any faults, and then swapping bits over until you get to the thing causing the problem.

But if you get to replacing discs and calipers, I would always suggest fitting in pairs. (Although when it was for a customer they often didn't see it the same way......)
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Thanks Harvey, I think you may be right. I have 2 new calipers now (made no difference) I can swap tyres but the pull is so severe I doubt its the tyres....starting to think it may be my new capiler is lazy......
 
DO you think the fault developed one day or that you just noticed it one day ? I say that because I was happily driving my Mk4 Cortina years ago then let a friend drive it , he had to brake hard and it went right across the road

If it did develop one day , what happened that day ? Did you drive through a puddle of oily water , for example ?

If you think you have a lazy caliper ,can you swap them from side to side ?
 
DaveHerns said:
DO you think the fault developed one day or that you just noticed it one day ? I say that because I was happily driving my Mk4 Cortina years ago then let a friend drive it , he had to brake hard and it went right across the road

If it did develop one day , what happened that day ? Did you drive through a puddle of oily water , for example ?

If you think you have a lazy caliper ,can you swap them from side to side ?
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It's so severe I could not have missed it, I would be dead by now if I had missed it.......... :|
 
Wheel bearings properly adjusted ? Does it pull to one side when driving without braking ? Is one disc getting hotter than the other ? Has a rock hit the metal brake pipe and partially flattened it ? Someone with a grudge sprayed your brakes with WD40 ?

Otherwise I'm running out of ideas

Find someone who's breaking one and get the hubs/pads /discs /calipers/hoses and swap the lot over ?
 
At this stage I think you ought to go on to completely eliminate the front brakes by renewing discs and pads. The likelihood of following a leaking nearside caliper with a seized new one seems too remote to be possible, but you should at least attempt to verify the new nearside caliper is working. With the used pads, lever the cylinders back into the bores so that you have daylight between the pads and discs both sides. Then get someone else to gently apply the brake whilst you watch what happens to the pads. If one side is reluctant to deploy you might have found your problem.

Having re read your original post it does sound as if the problem first appears when you change this nearside caliper. The only other thing I can think of that could produce this efect in the braking system is if you twisted and blocked one of the metal brake pipes whilst changing the caliper the first time.

Failing that, you really are onto the unlikely!

Chris
 
If you changed one caliper that had a sticking piston (developing over time) and then a suspension bushing has been busy perishing during the same space of time, maybe fixing one could reveal the other - ie. when the brakes are suddenly even, an uneven suspension action comes to light? Other than that I can only think maybe a rear caliper has failed but that might not make the car pull hard.

Just read a posting by Demetris who found two RH bottom link struts where there should be one LH and one RH, but I guess that didn't suddenly occur on your car...
http://p6roc.co.uk/Forum/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5113
 
Hi speed-freak,

just a thought - are you sure it's definitely a front end problem? Last year I had similar symptoms on another car. After a lot of mucking about checking front brakes/suspension and changing a few parts, I traced the problem to the rear. It was a combination of a slightly seizing rear caliper and worn bushes on the front of the trailing arms. I can only guess that, under moderate/heavy braking the dodgey caliper was pulling the trailing arms to one side and it felt like it was the front steering/brakes at fault. So, maybe worth a quick look at the back brakes and suspension bushes?

If you can find a garage that specialises in race suspension/brake modifying and tuning, they might have more suitable rolling road and test kit than your standard MOT garage - could save you a lot of bother and money in the long run?
 
JVY said:
Hi speed-freak,

just a thought - are you sure it's definitely a front end problem? Last year I had similar symptoms on another car. After a lot of mucking about checking front brakes/suspension and changing a few parts, I traced the problem to the rear. It was a combination of a slightly seizing rear caliper and worn bushes on the front of the trailing arms. I can only guess that, under moderate/heavy braking the dodgey caliper was pulling the trailing arms to one side and it felt like it was the front steering/brakes at fault. So, maybe worth a quick look at the back brakes and suspension bushes?

If you can find a garage that specialises in race suspension/brake modifying and tuning, they might have more suitable rolling road and test kit than your standard MOT garage - could save you a lot of bother and money in the long run?
Click to expand...

Looks like we have an answer. Front pads looked OK but having put new ones on, BIG improvement.......rear brakes bit soggy, and rear shocks badly worn.
All thses bits added up I guess...........
 
Well done that man!

There is merit in the approach of many garages in treating discs and pads as consummables - especially when you are dealing with a 30 year old bit of machinery!

Can I humbly suggest it would be a good idea to complete the front brakes by changing the discs (you'd already changed the hoses hadn't you?) and then finish the job off by changing rear discs and pads and both (there are two - one from the car to the calipers and one between the calipers) flexibles. The latter ought to expose any linkage or handbrake problems as well. You can then move on to another area of the car confident that brakes are sorted!

Regards

Chris
 
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