Help! New brakes but now car is pulling hard to the left during braking!!

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Apr 15, 2002 | 07:45 PM
  #1  
I'm really confused on this one. I just installed new brakes on my car last night. After I took it out and tested it everything seemed fine. Today I get in it and go to work and everything seems fine. Then after work I get in it and drive down the road and when I put the brakes on it pulls HARD to the left. It does this everytime I put the brakes on. It's not just a slight pull either, I have to use effort on the steering wheel to keep the car straight and during braking the pedal feels very stiff like it does when you pump it with the car not running. I never did take the bleeder screw undone so I don't see how air could have possibly gotten in the lines when there was no air in there before. Any ideas on why this is happening? It's really scary and I'd like to find out what's wrong so I can fix it.
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Apr 15, 2002 | 08:53 PM
  #2  
try bleeding your brakes, cause when you put your caliper back when replacing your new pads you propably got air in your lines. Try reading the thread that i started called car shakes the guys gave alot of good advice in that thread that could help you good luck.
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Apr 15, 2002 | 09:04 PM
  #3  
That's what my best friend suggests too so I'll probably try. I still don't see how air got into the line when I didn't open any of the bleeder valves and didn't disconnect ANY brake line anywhere.
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Apr 15, 2002 | 09:04 PM
  #4  
Check to make sure the piston did not bind in the cylinder. This would cause the pad to be stuck against the rotor and would produce the hard pedal you spoke of.
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Apr 15, 2002 | 09:48 PM
  #5  
Quote:
Originally posted by DAVECS1
Check to make sure the piston did not bind in the cylinder. This would cause the pad to be stuck against the rotor and would produce the hard pedal you spoke of.
That sounds more like it to me because they worked just fine when I took the car down the road last night after installed them. I have a sneaky suspicion it's the passenger side. About $8 per side for new front calipers with my O'reilly employee discount .... I think I can afford that.... but not for another week and a half.
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Apr 15, 2002 | 11:08 PM
  #6  
Quote:
Originally posted by 86TpiTransAm
with my O'reilly employee discount ....
I love my O'reilly employee discount It makes owning a thirdgen that much better. All from "selling parts the O'reilly way"
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Apr 15, 2002 | 11:21 PM
  #7  
Poncho.... Longview, TX..... a HiLo store.

I work in Accounts Payable at the corporate office in Springfield so I know alot of good stuff. I'm "The Midstates Guy". I got hired on right after O'reilly bought out Midstates Automotive and I'm the one and only Midstates accounting clerk. I take care of all the stuff for about 80 or more Midstates stores and I occassionally do a little stuff for the Central division when they need help. Fun Stuff. Nice to meet a fellow employee.
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Apr 16, 2002 | 09:04 PM
  #8  
Problem solved... sorta. I got in the car to drive to work today and I came up to the first point where I had to brake and when I did start to brake the car started to pull to the left again for a split second and the brake pedal was hard to push and then something happened and the brake pedal got easier to push and the car straightened up again. Brakes worked fine all day today. I'm guessing the piston was stuck and it just unstuck itself today.
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