Where do questions on brakes go? Car pulls to the right when service brakes applied.

John

 

General Tech Help section.

 

Ill move the thread over there for ya...

Welcome to HAF.

I edited the title to attract some attention.

Now YOU need to tell us what kind of Accord, what year, what engine, any mods? Suspension mods?

Dragging brakes can cause it to pull, but probably more common is suspension alignment.

Rubber suspension bushingscoming apart? Loose ball joints? Loose pivots for the upper control arms?

 

Hello Jim,

Thank you for your help. I have a Japan-made 2002 Honda Accord SE 4-dr sedan with about 68,000 miles on it. I had to buy it to keep a family member from having it repossessed. It was in my garage for eight months after local Tires Plus store had put new tires on and done an alignment. When I started using the car, it was okay, but now pulls to the right especially when braking hard at slow speeds. Are these cars prone to front alignment problems? Same shop has done my VW Vanagon and my Lincoln Continental without making noticeable mistakes.

As far as I know, car has standard Honda equipment (4-cyl engine, auto transmission, front disk brakes and apparently rear drum brakes).

Are there other things I need to worry about that are unique to the Accord?

John

 

It sounds like a sticking caliper

 

Air in one of the lines can cause braking to be harder on one side that the other.

Japan made? Nice, you have a VIN starting with JHM? Me too! That's real JDM for ya!

 

VIN starting with JHM just means it was BUILT in Japan. JDM means it was intended for salewithin Japan. Not the same thing...

I had a 98 4-door & had some pulling at first. It can be a couple things.

When we firstinherited the car, it had one mis-matched tire. Same size, same label (Michelin MXV4) but the tread pattern was clearly different. That made it pull either way, depending on how I swapped the tires around.

Also, the allowable spec forcamber on that car was really wide. Like +/- 1 whole degree or something like that. You may want to ask the shop to make the camber MATCH from side-to-side, which is not actuallyrequired by-the-book.

Finally, I dont mean to tell you to ignore other suggestions. Check for sticking caliper slide pins.

 

VIN begins with JHMCG

Took car to local Tires Plus store today. Mechanic could not find anything wrong with brakes. Supposedly he bleed system and adjusted rear brakes. Shop manager said callipers working fine and there is no unequal wear on pads, rotors, etc. Tire pressure adjusted to specs.

The pull to the right will not occur when car has been out all night in cold (for middle Georgia weather). Car pulls after it is warmed up.

Am I missing something?

John

 

Don't know if this is your issue, but I have a 93 accord and the front end was diving to the right every time I applied the brakes, went through the bleeding, pad changes and all, but it still dove to the right. Took it down to Brake Masters to check it out, come to find out, the front bolt for the right radius rod and had come off and was just in there loose. It actually elongated the hole in the cross member. Put nut back on and the car drives nice and straight now, even under braking. Not a big mechanic so I probably would have never thought to look at the radius rod because you can't really see the front of it unless you take off the front lower cover.

 

Hi Randy,

Thank you for your help. I got down on the driveway and looked under front bumper. Looks like nuts on both radius rods where they go through front cross-member. What if radius rod were loose at back end? Are there any good pictures of what I should see when I take the front wheel off?

John