ya know, when ya pop the brakes on, lightly or softly you get a lil' nudge to one side or the other? i've heard people with other thirdgens that have ahd the same problem, while others haven't....kinda curious as if it's a hit/miss type thing, that some got and others didn't. if i gently put the brakes on the car pulls right slightly, if i jam them on in a frenzy, it's a neck snapping pull towards the shoulder, curb, or any other object outside the passenger window, so what's causing it and who else has it? I'm thinking that the right brake is getting more pressure than the left somehow, either in the lines somewhere there's a clog? The calipers are brand new, haven't done the worn rotors yet, but what else do you guys think is the culprit...?

I forget what stupid thing I did, but afterwards the car would pull to the left for like half a second and then brake normally. Since then its gone away I think.

[Edit] Heh, I just read the other thread on this and I also ran over 2 tires on the highway avoiding traffic in the breakdown lane thing. That was what I did. [Edit]

I beleive that this is caused by a collapsed brake line, at least thats what was causing 9d1burd's brake problems. His description of the problem matches yours.

Well, as far as I know, it could be a lot of things. The first thing to check would be your lines.

First lift the car and take off both the wheels. With the car running pump the brakes, then try to turn the rotors. If one or both is stuck, you've got a clog or something else which is causing it not to release.

Second, have someone put on the brakes and hold them in the same spot. Test both sides and see if one side is harder to turn. A good way to do this is to put a nut back on the stud and tighten it. Then use a torque wrench to compare the torque required on each side. If there is a large difference, you could have a restriction or some mechanical problem with the caliper/pads/rotor.

If this all checks out then you have to investigate further into your suspension and steering.

Change both front brakelines (the flexable part that bolts to the caliper). They're cheap and the job is not hard. (The hardest part is bleeding the line lines after you've changed them).

Does the car seem to wander when driving slowly? My car would jerk violently to the sides during any decelerations....I discovered I had a bad inner tie rod that was letting one of my tires wobble. If you jack the front end up and put the steering wheel in its locked position, try moving both of the tires to the left and right. If you can move them around at all then that's your problem.

Even a hose that looks good will be bad inside. I had one go and lock up on me. Fluid got through but not back out.

But the hoses are like $15-$17 each, doesn't sound bad till you see a new remaned caliper is only $9.99each most places. Spend the extra dough and get them too.

Matt

I have that same problem... pulls hard to one side when I stomp on the brakes. It doesn't pull to just one side though, it does it both ways. When I'm easy on them it doesn't pull at all. I haven't driven it in a while (blew up the tranny) so I kind of forgot about it until now. I replaced one of the brake lines to the caliper (passenger side), but I didn't do the driver side since I didn't have a set of metric line wrenches at the time. Could it just be that driver's side line, or in the steel brake lines themselves? Also, I've thought about upgrading to Earl's brake lines, would that possibly solve the problem?

Fruityone is right, i had some hard pulling going on.

I could be going down the highway, if i had to brake hard the damn carwuld change lanes!!!!

About 100 bucks later all was well. I bought both lines(warning, the *******s at autozone dont know that both sides are the same, they try to sell you two different lines)new pads, rotors and repacked my bearings.

Stops like a champ, although the pads still rattle



All in all, very easy work. Let me know if you have any questions.

Totally correct!

We should have ALL replaced our front brake hoses at least once by now!!!

A lot of things kill hoses... heat, stress, mileage, but one thing our cars can't escape is AGE. Rubber deteriorates no matter what.

Change both front brake hoses. Be sure to pick up the "crush washers"- 2 copper washers for each hose. The hose ends at the caliper have metal rings on each side, as does the caliper; these rings "bite" into the copper and seal off the connection.

Why change both? 1, safety. 2, both are old. 3, you might fix the one side, and then have the same problem on the other side.

Tip Sheet!

1. Do one side at a time.

2. Soak the hard-line-to-brake-hose nut (12mm) with a penetrant like Liquid Wrench.

3. Use hose-crimpers, or a pair of vise grips, to squeeze the hose shut. Squeeze it shut as close as possible to the hard-line connection.

4. Remove the caliper as if you were doing a brake job. Undo the hose from the caliper. (note the way the crush washers are assembled around the banjo bolt (11mm) and fitting.) Install the new hose to the new caliper.

5. Install the caliper/new hose to the car. Make sure you insert the "middle" fitting properly into the strut bracket; it only fits one way. Don't "twist" the hose. Most hoses have a painted line down one side to make sure you don't twist the hose as you install it (twisting=stress=hose failure).

6. Break the connection between the old hose and the hard line. Use a backup wrench on the hose fitting so you don't mess up the hard line.

7. Be quick! Loosen the tube nut all the way and remove the old hose, let it fall to the newspaper. Thread the new hose onto the hard line. Brake fluid will pour out as you do this, so be quick! (Thus the reason for doing this step last.)

8. Tighten the connection up. Bleed that side.

9. Make sure you torque the caliper back to spec.

10. Remember that the front brakes are served by the half of the master cylinder reservoir that's CLOSEST to the FIREWALL. If you think you're running low on fluid, check the correct (rearmost) section of the reservoir!! If you get air in the system you're going to go thru hell.

thanks everyone....I'm gonna go and buy new brake hoses then and do this change over at the same time i do my rotors, doesn't sound difficult just might take a few to do if i'm doing rotors at the same time, and i don't see a reason for taking the wheels off twice as opposed to once....Tom, i'll be following your step-by-step tip sheet as i go along on it, and hopefully this'll stop my braking issues....also, when i went to midas and recieved a new set of calipers and pads, the drivers side caliper had froze !!! this sounds to me like brakelines that are screwed up and not letting that pressure back through, what about to you guys?

another thing that will cause it is a stuck caliper. see if it pulls to one side while driving, then hit the brakes, if it goes the other way, it could be a stuck caliper. the side it pulls to while driving is the problem side, when you apply the brakes, you only stop w/ the one side thats working and will cause it do dive that way. while you have the wheels off, see if one side is worn down farther than the other. or just try and push the piston back in the caliper, if one goes really hard or not at all, its a stuck caliper.

right, i did have a caliper that froze up on me, and that's why midas replaced both of them at the same time, so both front calipers are new, hopefully they're both working fine, but i'll make sure later...i'm betting on the lines crapping out on me.

Do you have a part number for the lines or something? I think I'm going to replace the calipers, pads, brake hoses and lines tomorrow.

Actually, both sides aren't the same. The hoses are the same length, the ends are the same fittings, but the little hollow brass fitting that's crimped to the middle of the hose is slightly different. The strut bracket only accepts the hose fitting one way (it's got a different groove in it). I just found that out, I stupidly took both hoses out of the boxes and forgot which came from which box. I lined them up with my original hoses and figured it out by looking at the alignment of the center fitting.

My car did this. Right after i replaced my brake pads!! Found out after alot of hard braking that the calapers were just sticking. In your case u have new calipers so its not likely i would have to go with what every one else is saying check the lines

tom, mine were identical. Could it be a diff in years maybe?

They did have to part numbers for each side, but the part number for he passenger side gave me a line that would not even come close to working.

I will have to see if i still have the reciept.

My car pulled to the right side under braking ever since I got it. Had a brake job done on it and it aligned. Decided just to put up with the pulling. Now 3 years+ later I had a caliper lock up on the driver front. Put a compelete set of Earl's lines on and the pulling has vanished totally.