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Braking to the left
pekwah1 - 18/12/13 at 03:53 PM

Alright guys,

Haven't had a massive chance to look at this yet but my car is locking on the left before the right.
It does pull a bit to the left if I don't lock so definitely more braking force o the left.

I can also lock both front quite easily if I smash the brakes so both work.

Have bled the brakes today which didn't make any difference.

Any bright ideas of what this could be?

Regards
Andy

JimSpencer - 18/12/13 at 04:04 PM

Corner weights are out on the front?

steve m - 18/12/13 at 04:11 PM

M8

While we bled the brakes today, it was the left front that even with the bleed nipple undone, you still had a quite a hard pedal
but we did get some air out ?
Could you have a seized piston ?

Might be worth whipping the wheel off, and removing one pad, put a spanner in to stop the piston coming right out and apply the brakes, then push the piston back in, using the spanner, I would do this a few times
then do the other pad/piston the same way

This would reveal if you have one side of the calliper possibly seizeing

The other option, is the right hand side working properly ?

Steve

hughpinder - 18/12/13 at 04:25 PM

I think 'steve m' will be right and it a sticky caliper!
Hugh

Oddified - 18/12/13 at 04:27 PM

If it pulls a bit to the left under normal braking as well as locking easier, it's likely to be sticking piston/s on the rhd side, or contaminated brake pads.

Ian

britishtrident - 18/12/13 at 04:31 PM

Stuck calliper, if you have old style Cortina/Escort M16 callipers it will either be a pad seized in the calliper or piston siezed.
With floating single piston callipers as on the Sierra it could be the above or the calliper stuck on the guide pins or the retaining steady clip is missing.

britishtrident - 18/12/13 at 04:34 PM

I forgot to say don't use WD40 or similar as it turns the seals hard and is probably what caused the problem in the first place.

David Jenkins - 18/12/13 at 04:54 PM

I had this problem a little while ago - a REALLY good brake bleeding session sorted it out (I must have had a bubble on one front side).

pekwah1 - 18/12/13 at 08:10 PM

Cheers for the comments guys.
Ill check out the pistons....

Regardless, should the pedal be rock hard even with the bleed nipple open?
It was hard work pressing it with the left nipple open, all other brakes bled fine without a rock hard pedal...

mjkh - 18/12/13 at 08:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by pekwah1


Regardless, should the pedal be rock hard even with the bleed nipple open?


No it shouldn't.

pekwah1 - 18/12/13 at 08:18 PM

Well obviously it shouldn't :p

But what would cause this??

britishtrident - 18/12/13 at 08:24 PM

quote:
Originally posted by pekwah1
Cheers for the comments guys.
Ill check out the pistons....

Regardless, should the pedal be rock hard even with the bleed nipple open?
It was hard work pressing it with the left nipple open, all other brakes bled fine without a rock hard pedal...


Get some bod to push and hold the pedal down while you remove the nipple and clean it out.
If clearing the the nipple doesn’t work I it would point to a braided hoses blocked, a couple of times I have encountered braided lines with the end fittings not drilled through.

Bleeding is highly unlikely to fix the problem anyway, it was different in the old days of drum brakes where a substantial volume of fluid had to be moved and the brakes tend to grab because leading shoe type brakes self-servo.

paulf - 18/12/13 at 10:46 PM

I had the same problem and after messing about bleeding the brakes and removing and freeing off pads it was still the same .I eventually sorted it by altering the corner weights by winding up the rear drivers side a bit at a time until the fronts locked evenly.Ideally you should use a corner weight gauge but I just did it by trial and error on a quiet road.
Paul

steve m - 18/12/13 at 11:14 PM

Andy,

we have some idea's above !!

steve

mcerd1 - 19/12/13 at 09:44 AM

quote:
Originally posted by pekwah1
Regardless, should the pedal be rock hard even with the bleed nipple open?
It was hard work pressing it with the left nipple open, all other brakes bled fine without a rock hard pedal...


^^ go with BT's suggestion and clean out the nipple first

if that doesn't work you'll need to work your way back up the lines, cleaning or checking at each point / union until you find the problem...

[Edited on 19/12/2013 by mcerd1]

Peteff - 19/12/13 at 10:00 AM

Crack a pipe joint and press the pedal just to see if it goes down.