I just got my car back after a nice monthlong hiatus and got Hawk HPS brake pads installed. Now the car pulls very hard to the right under heavy braking, suspension-wise it pulls to the left due to an old alignment. What could cause this? It almost feels as if the front left caliper is not braking.
yeah i'm thinking that left pad may not be installed correctly, or your rotors are suckin and need to be replaced. i'm sure someone that actually knows what their talking about will chime in. g'luck with the fix man.
Hmm, Im not entirely sure why...You are saying the alignment is reasonable, yet when you brake its pulling. What all was touched down in there at the bodyshop? Maybe the pad is just in there wrong or something simple Tomorrow, when theres some light, just pop off the caliper and check out the pad. It'll help you mark that off your list as a possible culprit.
They turned all 4 rotors when they installed the brake pads. I'm not sure if the body shop would have been any part of it, they halfassed everything else that they fixed so it wouldnt surprise me.
bleed brake lines lately ? lift car and turn wheels to make sure none is bind ? if you have an IR temp gauge maybe you can measure the disc if its equally hot or within range of each other after hard braking
Dont know if the brakes have been bled recently or not. Some guys on IA seem to think its the master cylinder which makes good sense.
temp of the disc will tell you if one is working harder than the other I dont know how our master cylinder works i thought it splits into 2 (frt, rear) and then it splits again if its on one side only then it may be the individual line btw check your ABS lines to make sure there is no leaks there
If you had pads installed then there is a possibility that when the piston on the calipers were pressed in that an air bubble made it's way in through the master cylinder. Highly unlikely but I have had that happen. If a bubble is there then one side will work harder than the other.
At this point, it's worth a check of your tire pressures. If the pressures are uneven, the pulling effect can be felt.
They're to spec according to the doorpanel, the alignment shop lowered them all (I normally run 40/37psi)
Resolution: The first body shop that did such a terrible job on everything else actually managed to kink one of the brakelines by wrapping it around the strut. My dad has the car but says it feels fine after thrashing it all afternoon.
Drives fine now, whenever the next nice day is I need to go test out these pads and the new tires. Didnt need any new brake lines though some SS lines would be nice.