Pulling to the right when braking blues...

[dbrisson]

Just when I fixed my oil leak (rocker seals) it is now pulling to the right when braking. I searched the forums and the general consenus was sticky calipers, or lines. I replaced both calipers today with new ones and still the same. I aired both fornts at 32 and it still does it. I thought caliper since I thougt I had one draggin and could hear it shudder on release.

I guess it now time for 2 front lines??


How about rears could they push the car at braking? I am going to try and check those tonight.

Any thing I am missing???

82 911 sc
D.Brisson

[limble]

I would for sure do the front lines. When the lines get old the ID gets smaller and doesn't allow the fluid to return to the reservoir causing the pad to drag. Mine pulled to the right and all I did was replace the front lines. Problem solved.

[Goth]

+1 on the lines.

[trj911]

Check for a leaky master cylinder also.

[unclebilly]

I dunno, I'd say stuck caliper or a bad wheel bearing.

[2.7RACER]

Corner balance. Has anyone recently adjusted the front end down or up?
Call an alignment shop, check whether they do corner balancing.
Simple adjustment. Just need scales.
Make sure to have you or 150 pounds in drivers side.

[Aerkuld]

Have you tried bleeding the brakes?

[Goth]

pulling to the right when braking

dbrisson: Since you have already bled the brakes and assuming your brake lines are not new, I would replace the brake lines next and bleed again (the brakes that is ).

If it pulls right as you apply the brakes and the pull becomes less as you hold the brake pedal position; I would suspect the left front caliper is responding slower.

Most likely cause would be the inner liner on left front brake line is damaged/deteriorating. This will partially block the brake fluid, causing left caliper to respond slower than the right caliper.

This is a common symptom on old brake lines, especially after someone has let the calipers hang by the old lines, as when doing a brake job (ask me how know this, sometimes I never learn).

Hope this helps!

[Hoss3.0]

If the calipers are new I would look at the flex (rubber) hose next. As someone mentioned earlier, the internal diameter can change (get smaller) with the breakdown of the rubber. This leads to fluid not transfering as well through them. They aren't expensive and should be changed at some point regardless. It might not be a bad idea to do the rears as well. I had the same problem. I rebuilt the calipers and it persisted so the hoses were next. That fixed the problem. Good luck.

[avi8torny]

I just went through this after rebuilding my calipers. It was pulling hard to the right when braking after putting everything back together. Did what Bill V. and Early S Man recommended.....isolating the pistons and checking to see if they move propery. The did.

What I wound up doing was switching the pads and wheels on the front to the other side. Now it handles, drives and brakes like it did before....awesome. I usually don't rotate my tires from side to side. Apparently they got switched.

TD

[dbrisson]

I have 4 stainless lines on order from pelican. I did recently change the height but during that change I did not have any pulling problems. I checked everything after the adj. I have reset it and set in inmany increments to try and get a change, I know when its out side I get a bias when driving, no brakes.

What I did hear everyonce and a while before the pulling started was a slight growl after releasing the brakes, generally it felt like it was more from the left. This noise when awayt when the pulling started. This would also confirm a caliper sticky or the line thoughts.

I replaced both fronts with new ones and bled the brakes with no master cylinder pressure and then with the car running. The pedal is nice and tight.

I will double check the test that describes holding the pedal, I have been increasing pedal to get it to pull more, in order to get more data and feeling. I seem to feel the right front wheel is also locking more and quicker then the left. If in reverse the steering wheel pulls to the opposite side, still verifying a slow condition on the drivers side.

Bearings and hubs are clean and new. Lines should be here thurs. So its off again and see what happens.

[Walt Fricke]

Since you say you have installed the new brake lines, is the left side hub seal also new and doing its job? I once found that pulling to the right was due to some bearing grease escaping and getting on the inside of the left rotor. Less friction on the left side = pull to the right. Doesn't take much if even a little keeps coming. Took me rather a while before thinking to look on the inside of the rotor carefully to find this - it wasn't obvious a fluid leak. And if you have the dust shields in there it will be even harder to check.

In my case the seal had worked its way out of its hole in the hub.

Walt

[kentSC]

I had a similar problem that started on the track. Under heavy braking the car pulled hard left by the end of about four laps on my first day on the track in the SC.

I noticed fluid leaking from the front right calliper. I put in one rebuild kit and took it for a spin - still pulled. I put in new pads - still pulled. I put in another rebuild kit - still pulled, and still leaking. I thought it may have been my workmanship but it turned out to be a seal between the two sides of the caliper.

These seals are very hard to replace. Seals are apparantly identical to VW passat seals. I ended up buying two second hand calipers and rebuilding both of them. I replaced all brake lines with braided lines (front and rear), and put new pads in the front. All works fantastic now.

So, how does that help you. I found that the once the pad had brake fluid embedded in them they were shot. I tried cleaing with, water, petrol, carby cleaner, and after a couple of stops, you could still see brake fluid in the pores. I changed all my lines because they were looking pretty worn. Sounds like the other guys have had problems with them before. I have no other clues for you.

KK

[dbrisson]

I have not replaced the lines yet. I will replace th pads for general purpose in hopes of cleaning evrything up. Thanks for the help, I will post and update when the lines arrive..

[ianc]

As you've decided, do lines first.

Also, do check the wheel bearing adjustment as well. A loose front wheel bearing can cause a pull,

ianc

[Hoss3.0]

The "growling" you heard before the pull started could very well have been a wheel bearing on it's way out. That is the sound they make. But if the pull only occurs during braking I wouldn't suspect this. If after the SS lines are added you still have this problem try inspecting the seal and bearing.

KentSC; Beautiful job on cleaning out that wheel well. What did you use to get it down to bare metal? How long did it take? What are the "bubble" like shapes that appear in the top right corner of the opening?

[kentSC]

'Hoss3.0', The wheel well is not back to bare metal, it's the original paint colour finish of the underside of the body. I had just finished cleaning the wheel well with Ajax and a scrubbing brush, used a bit of oven cleaner for the hard bits, and a high pressure hose. The high pressure hose didn't really do much, it was the scrubbing brush that transformed. The bubbling that I think you are referring to is ribbing in the panel - for strength maybe, or just the way it is.

This is one of the original calipers. If you have a close look you can see some previous tosser has welded two of the bolts holding the two halves together. Is was the same on the other side and suspect this was the cause of my seals between the two halves leaking.

Kent

[Hoss3.0]

Kent, I guess what I meant was "down to the paint" and not "bare metal". Looks great I'm going to give it a try. Those look like "S" calipers. Too bad someone messed with them.

dbrisson...Sorry, I should have PM'ed my question to Kent. It only just occured to me.

[dbrisson]

No probs... I am just waiting on the lines... and trying to fix my rear deck shelf in the mean time..

[Hoss3.0]

While you wait for the new lines maybe you could try swapping the tires side to side. I don't think this is your problem but then again...you never know. I once had a pull I couldn't figure out (in a "94 VW Golf) and it truned out to be "radial pull" from a tire. But it was fairly constant. I just think that it couldn't hurt in your case. I have heard two schools on switching radial tires from side to side so I don't know the answer to that one.