Brakes Pulling To One Side?

[jumbojake]

I've noticed, occasionally, my car pulls to the left when I pull upto traffic lights ... but if I try again (when safe), it seems fine.

I'm new to rear wheel drive and not sure if my problem is due to camber in the road affecting this lighter steering, or some odd intermittent braking problem.

I don't notice any binding sounds, nor pulling when free-wheeling at low speed.

[Fishboy]

Check your front callipers on the side thats pulling in. That happened to mine last year I ignored it and it siezed solid resulting in new calliper, discs and pads, painful!

Dissapointing for a high quality car.

[jumbojake]

hmm took another test today (nice flat quiet road) ...

- seems at slow speeds (10-0mph) it is fine...

- At 60mph it's also ok.

- At about 30-10 it pulls to the left 3 out of 5 times, and very slightly to the right on 1 out of 5.

Disc wear looks ok, pads look ok and about the same both sides..... A

So ... I had a stiff calliper on my old Avensis, didn't notice any pull (but it is front wheel drive, so perhaps less sensitive?) .... however, there was a really obvious difference in the pad thickness, which is what triggered my notice when I gave it a service.... pins cleaned, re-greased and seemed ok.

I'm a bit confused... I do notice if I hit 'tramlines' in the road, from heavy lorries, the steering is pulled all over, the same on cambered roads ...so I wonder if this is just the nature of front wheel drive? .... am I being paranoid?

[ChumpusRex]

Worth checking the alignment - incorrectly set geometry can cause vague steering, tramlining and pulling under breaking.

As it's a RWD car, make sure you get a 4 wheel alignment done, as the rear wheels can be out of alignment and cause problems like steering wheel off centre, etc.

[is200 Newbie]

What size of wheels / tyres do you have? Have they recently been changed or upgraded?

M56 in Cheshire has a bad stretch of road where it seems there are two "lines" what looks like the road has sunk a bit from constant heavy vehicles driving on the same spot - a lot of the cars I have had when driving on a road like have tended to be a bit vague when on the effected stretch but once clear of it is fine, I think its a combination of the camber of the road and the effected road itself..

It could also be a sticking caliper - the rubber washer on the inner caliper piston bore may be starting to perish causing more friction on the piston when the brake is applied, the rubber brake parts on the caliper assembly slowly degrade, even quicker if the wrong type of brake fluid is used, the rubber will expand and lose shape to the point where it has no effect on the purpose its there to do ...- another symptom you would experience would be a "shake" in the steering wheel when braking and if you have just started to notice the pulling then it may not be that noticeable yet.

As noted above - wheel alignment and also wheel pressure have a big effect

Me, I would take a look at the calipers, get them greased up and take it from there - its good practise anyway to regularly grease the pins on these calipers as they are prone to seizing as everyone will say.. I do mine every 6 months - not a big job (half an hour to an hour max for all 4 corners)

[Fishboy]

Tyres can make a big difference. I fitted Pirreli P Zero Rosos which tramline much worse than the previous continentals not that happy with them as they seem noisy too.

[jumbojake]

well, as an update, I had a good look today .... pads look ok (even wear, plenty of fat left) .... callipers seem to move freely... all looks good under there.

I did notice the tyres are different !!!... can't believe I didn't notice before! (doh!)

Seem the previous owner put a bridgestone on, with dunlop left on the other three... wear is about the same.

The tread pattern is similar, which I guess explains why the handling seems ok normally, but I guess with different rubber it explains why sometimes it pulls to one side under breaking, but not always (I assume temperature, hardness of breaking etc...)

What surprises me is Lexus dealer sold a 'Lexus approved' car with a mix of tyres on the same axle.... I understand this is illegal in some Euro countries... didn't mention a thing!

Anyway, I'm still thinking about a switch to winter tyres, which would resolve the problem.

[Fishboy]

I believe tyre make and type can make such a difference, I wish I had done some research before I replaced mine.