Pulling to the right when braking

[Dustin Gebhardt]

This one has me stumped and I hope you fine folks can point me in the right direction. I have an 07 EL Limited (233k miles) that pulls to the right when I firmly brake. The steering wheel also rotates while this happens, so I suspect that the front brake system is to blame. If I release the brake pedal and press it firmly again, I don't get any pulling (or the puling is much less noticeable). And since it pulls to the right, I suspect that the passenger side is the likely side of the issue. However, I replaced the caliper on that side just over a year ago with a reman unit from O'Reilly. I've bled all four corners, multiple times. The passenger side pads are perfectly uniform. The driver's side pads showed uneven wear (the inner pad was worn 50% more than the outer pad), so I replaced the slide pins and slide pin boots/seals/whatever you call them. The caliper still didn't slide back and forth easily, so I replaced the whole caliper and the caliper bracket. The caliper now slides in and out along the pins nicely.

While I had the front end jacked up tonight, checking for looseness and suspension-related issues, I noticed that the passenger side wheel rotates more easily that the driver's side wheel, but not by much. I didn't see any issues with ball joints or suspension bushings.

A bit of history:
Mar '17: Purchased
Mar '17: Braking performance was very poor. Replaced pads and rotors with EBC Yellow pads and EBC normal rotors. All new brake fluid. About 15 miles after replacing the pads and rotors, the passenger front caliper got stuck, which caused the brakes to smoke and the rotor to begin warping (the steering wheel would wobble). I replaced the caliper. No rotor warpage could be detected when I checked the runout. Brake performance has been exceptional (other than the massive amounts of dust) since then. I also replaced the passenger wheel hub at this time due to the bearing making noise.
April '18: Expy begins to pull during braking. Bleed brakes several times. I notice uneven pad wear on driver's side. Passenger side pad wear is uniform.
May '18: Replace driver's side wheel hub due to bearing noise. Replace driver's side caliper pins and boots while trying to repair the pulling issue and uneven pad wear issue. Replace driver's side caliper and bracket after new slide pins and boots fail to allow caliper to slide smoothly.

Possible causes:
Driver caliper isn't applying full pressure. Possible brake line causing restriction?
Suspension shifting during braking, causing the alignment to shift and pull to one side.

Any thoughts?

 

[bobmbx]

Check the rubber line to the driver side caliper for "ballooning" or sponginess. A soft hose can affect the pressure applied to the piston (lower pressure = less braking power) causing a pull to the opposite side.

How does it perform if you pump the brake pedal a few times while braking?

 

[Dustin Gebhardt]

The more I pump it, the less I feel the pull. My general braking procedure right now is to firmly depress the pedal and quickly release (adjust the steering wheel to correct the pull), then quickly press the brake pedal again (which requires less steering wheel adjustment, if any at all), release the pedal, and finally press the pedal (with almost no need to adjust the steering) until stopped.

 

[bobmbx]

Yeah, it sound like you have a bad rubber brake line or a flow restriction in the driver side system. Do a hand-over-hand of the driver side brake line all way to the master cylinder looking for dents or crimps or strange bends.

However, this does not explain the absence of the pulling for nearly a year.

 

[Plati]

My 2003XLT pulled right on braking, it was the LF rubber brake hose. Hoses can be bad without any visual indication. I measured temp of caliper(s) using an infrared thermometer. Driver side caliper was heating up. Thats my go to diagnostic tool to see if all 4 brakes are working right. It at least isolates it to a wheel.

Caliper AND Rotor heating up , mainly ROTOR!!

Pretty complicated braking procedure you got there, get it fixed!

 

[Arni Atlason]

I had issue with brake rubber hose to the caliber, the clamp in the middle of the hose was crimping the hose so the flow was restricted to and from the caliber.

This was because the clamp was rusted and was expanding at inside that goes over the hose.

Bought the hose at dealer only $35 cheap fix and brakes are much better.

 

[Dustin Gebhardt]

I bought new hoses from Rockauto last night. They should be here in a few days.

Thanks for the suggestions. I searched the forum and found the threads where you guys each found your problem. The IR gun is a great idea. After reading that thread I had planned to try that today. And I saw the thread with the rusted clamp and the one with the obstructed brake line. Those lead me to think my brake lines are the cause. This site is a great font of information.

 

[gixer2000]

Yeah those rubber lines like to play games. I had one in my 07 Keep constant pressure at the caliper so my brake was hanging. I didn't know enough at the time to check the rubber lines so I threw a caliper at it and had the same issue. $30 later it was fixed with help from this forum.

 

[1955moose]

Brake hose change out is a good idea. Don't know if you already changed it, but I'd also replace the other side caliper too. Changing 1 only can and will cause a pull. The one thing I disagree with is your Suv pulled to the right, you should have changed the left side in that case. Your getting a malfunctioning piston or pressure problem on the left, that's why it's pulling to the right. If all else fails run a diagnostic to be sure theirs no abs issues.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

 

[NASCAR Mike]

I would replace all of the brake hoses. If one is bad, chances are the other three will be next.

My 08 Expy only has 70k miles on it but in Oct 2017 I changed all of the brake hoses because they were 10 years old at that point (build date was OCT 2007). I flushed the brakes out with new fluid. No pulling issues and the brake pedal is much firmer now. I also upgraded to Powerstop SUV rotors and pads. They were a great upgrade.