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Hi,
My car pulls to the right a little the first 2-4 times you hit the brakes after it's been sitting for a period like overnight. After that it is solid with a perfect peddle, good stopping power, just no issues. It's been doing it for awhile but I leave my house by the same route and 3 miles down the road is the first time I hit the brakes and I thought it was uneven road because after that stop sign it is fine. The calipers are dry, look great, shoes are dry with plenty of meat, hoses look too good to be 40 years old, bled the front brakes, no air and clean fluid. I took the left side shoes out, polished the pin, exercised the pistons, bled it good, Ive enclosed pics the whole thing looks pretty clean. I don't want to ignore it and I dont feel like taking the shot gun approach and just replacing everything.
Seems like it should bee a sticking Caliper but they look great, anyone know if they are original based on the numbers?
Any Ideas, what about that proportioning valve, any chance that's an issue?
Hi, thanks, TP is good all the way around, so are the tires.. Thing is after I use the brakes a few times the issue is gone and they are perfect.. I can run it down the road with my hands off the wheel and hitting the bakes does not move the wheel... I'm just not sure what that valve does...
Clue number two: pulls to the right a little. Left front caliper is not doing its share of work. Bad hose?
While I was checking things out I hit the hose fittings with PB blaster incase I replace them..
How old are the pads? Any idea of brand/line?
Are the calipers OE to the car? Original pistons/seals? Stainless sleeves? Might be a piston hanging up in its bore.
Don't have a history on the calipers or pads, I enclosed a pic of the Calipers showing some numbers, not sure if they are OEM but there is not a speck of rust on them so I think they have been replaced, same with the pads.
The issue seems to be thermal related.. I drove it 20 miles yesterday and the brakes were 100% fine after the initial few pulls to the right. Let it sit for a couple hours and cool down and took another drive, it pulled to the right but not as hard, I don't think it was completely cooled down... then it was fine again.. Next time I drive it I'm going to gently ride the brakes to warm them up without really applying them...That should give me an idea of its a sticking caliper or some sort of issue with the pads grabbing different hot then when cold... I'm not comfortable with braking and steering issues...
x2 on bad hoses. It's very inexpensive to replace all 4.
Unless you're really racing; No need for fancy braided.
Good quality OE-type replacement hoses. ACDelco, Raybestos, Wagner.
Do replace all 4.
* matters little how Outside of hose looks; they fail & collapse Internally.
Any chance brake fluid or grease is getting on the pads? I had this issue. It would lock up the side that was contaminated when cold then be fine when warmed up.
Any chance brake fluid or grease is getting on the pads? I had this issue. It would lock up the side that was contaminated when cold then be fine when warmed up.
Ding Ding Ding we have a winner.. or at least it pointed me in the right direction-(Thank you).. What I found should not surprise me based on the other things I've found in this car. Conventional wisdom says that if pulling to the right look at the left side so I didn't really tear into the right side the first time. There are already two different calipers and it appears the brake shoes are different and the right have noticably more wear. The lower outside plunger looked stuck or sluggish and one of them was weeping a tiny amount of fluid that did not seem to get on the face of the shoe but the finish on the back of the shoe was starting to crinkle and come off...
So, where do I get and what kind of calipers do I want? Rock auto has Delco stainless slieved remans for <80.00, autozone has tons of poor reviews, or should I go with Ecklers new castings? Same question on the pads, what is the difference between organic and semi metalic-(what did the car come with)... I'm thinking organic would be easier on the rotors...
You can rebuild the caliper easy. Just find out if it's o ring or lip seals. Check the pistons and the bore if they have corrosion. Make sure you have the correct torque spec when you put the two halfs together. I do think it is a good thing to have the correct/same calipers left to right. Also if it's an early C3, braking is biased front to back with different calipers. Larger caliper pistons on the front.
I tried organic and semi metalic pads,,,, I like both. I didn't like the fancy high end pads.
Odd Brake pulling issue
