Howdy all,

I'm having a strange issue with my 1997 Accord EX Coupe and I'm hoping that the brain trust here can help me sort it out.

Back in the fall, I did the RoH conversion, and it worked great. Last week I started having an issue when braking, the car would pull to the right, and if I braked hard, it would pull harder and the front right wheel sounded like it would lock up, and not have ABS kick in.

My first thought was the calipers, since they are the original ones that came with the car. I replaced them, as well as the brake lines, bled the system, but I'm still getting the exact same behavior with the new calipers. Any thoughts on what else to try?

 

Can you tell if the brakes on one side are working harder than the other? One side (right side, in your case) would be hotter than the other. Don't overlook the back brakes, but since they don't provide as much force when braking, the effect would be less than if the problem were with the front brakes.

Pulling could also be caused by worn suspension components or misalignment. How is the front end? Check for slop/looseness.

 

Bleed the breaks, double check the pads. Your ABS modulator could have something wrong with it perhaps.

 

basket_case covered the basics. Abnormal tire wear would be an indicator of something amiss with the front. Mileage?

Keep in mind that the brake system is diagonally split. Meaning that the right rear/left front are one circuit, and the left rear and right front are the other. If there is an issue with the right rear caliper or a pressure loss, this will affect the left front calipers performance. But a pressure issue would be felt in the pedal as a soft or long pedal.

Do you have any wheel bearing noise from the front? If so jack up the left wheel and place the car in drive too see if there is any wheel bearing noise, check the right side as well. Look for any witness marks on the rotor from the caliper or caliper cage hitting it. And check for a wad or grease or contamination on the pads, if it cannot create friction the pad cannot 'bite'.

 

Thanks for the tips! I rechecked the suspension pieces. Back in the fall, when I did the RoH conversion, I also replaced most of the front suspension pieces: tie rod ends, lower and upper control arms, struts, and the associated bushings. When I jack up the front end and rest the car on the jack stands, the wheels are solid, no in and out wobble when I grasp the top and bottom.

When I put the car in gear, only one of the wheels spins. Is that normal? I thought both of them would. But out of the wheel that spins, no bearing noise. Which I'd hope for, since new bearings were part of the RoH conversion.

I'm going to next rule out rotor and pads by swapping them to the other side and see what happens.

 

lol these cars don't come with lsd

 

im thinkin a stuck RF caliper

 

So I swapped the rotors and pads, but same things, pulls to the right. Rebled the system, clear fluid and no bubbles on all four corners. Jacked up one side of the car, put it in gear, no rubbing or grinding noises, and the brakes stop the wheel spinning. Jacked up the other side of the car, same result.

So now I'm thinking one of the sides isn't getting as much hydraulic pressure as the other. I'm guessing that isn't something that is easy to quantify at home.

 

That was my first thought as well, and why I replaced the calipers.

 

I just took the car on a drive to the front of the neighborhood and back, about 5 miles. I braked hard several times, including back up the driveway. I measured the temp at the rotors, and it was 300 degrees on each side right after I stopped. So it doesn't appear that one side is binding or working harder than the other.

 

u just need an alignment


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It doesn't pull when driving down the road, only under braking. I had the alignment done about a month and a half ago.

I think it is something in the ABS. The right front wheel is definitely locking up, and it shouldn't with ABS. There is no pedal judder when pushing the brake pedal hard like you'd expect when ABS kicks in. After the last bleeding, the ABS light finally came on and stayed on, and the ABS pump is making some noises that it didn't make before.

 

Replace both front brake hoses.

 

Did that, per the first post. Replaced all brake hoses, two in the front and four in the back.

 

If the calipers were seizing up it would be pulling when you're NOT pressing the brakes...not when you ARE pressing the brakes. Really common sense here. It really is.

When you press the brakes you are putting the most amount of force possible, even if the brakes are seized up they are both at max stopping power, which means they will be putting the same pressure on the pads, which would not give you any idea whatsoever if your caliper is seizing up.

Furthermore, assuming what mike said is true about proportioning valves, and I rarely doubt anything he says is not true, if the proportioning valve was somehow bad it would be affecting both sides which would balance out.

Regarding an alignment, when you brake, your car flexes to the front and puts strain on your suspension, if it's out of alignment, it will show itself at that time.

 

Howdy all,

Just got the car back from the shop. The issue was a bit of dirt in the brake fluid, and it clogged up one of the ports on the ABS manifold, so one side was getting more pressure than the other. Not sure why that didn't get reflected in different rotor temps when I checked, other than I didn't drive it and apply the brakes enough to have it appear.