+2 pulling to one side on braking

[JJDraper]

If you use a car a lot, you get used to emerging problems and often ignore them. Or perhaps I'm just lazy. Anyway, I was forcibly reminded of this when I had to brake hard on a motorway to avoid an idiot. The car pulled quite strongly to the right, making me steer against the pull & then overcompensating when I released the brakes - quite scary. Something had to be done... Sunday morning came and an opportunity to get at the problem was taken. I took the left wheel off and had a good poke about, pulling joints etc - no suspension problems. Must be brakes. Checked pads.. Hmm, not worn, but one side was slightly more worn than the other. Sticking pads - no problem, just remove the 'R' clips and pins, remove pads and have a closer look.

That is where my problems started.. Long story short, it took nearly 2 hours, bruised fingers (hit with a large hammer) and a lot of swearing to get the pins out. The pins were quite rusted into the pads and covered in baked on brake dust and crud. In addition, they were also pretty bent. (How do the pins get bent??) Eventually got the pins out and the pads were pretty well glued into the caliper with all the dust & accumulated crud. Cleaned everything up, including the pad grooves in the caliper and reassembled with a couple of new pins. A few days bedding in and everything was fine, except that there was now a slight pull to the left - I guess I have to do the other side now.

A problem with light cars is that they do not wear their brake pads very quickly, and this makes for long intervals between new pads. Moral - dismantle and clean the calipers annually to keep everything moving correctly in Brakeland . Also, simple jobs often turn out to be not.

Jeremy
PS any views on which side the pins should go in from? Outside-to-in is easy to install, but drifting them out when they are rusted in is a nightmare.

[rgh0]

Hi Jeremy what pads have you been using. Some like EBC greenstuff generate much more corrosive dust than others I have found.

I agree you need to check the pad assembly on a yearly basis to ensure its all moving as intended.

cheers
Rohan