Pulling to Left when Braking
 

Hello,

I'm getting a very noticeable pull to the left under anything more than very light braking. The car tracks straight and true when not braking.

Under hard braking, I'd also get a loud deep groaning noise from the front left of the car as it slows to a stop.

I noticed that all my wheels had a light, normal film of brake dust EXCEPT my right front wheel. The rotor didn't look as smooth as the left front either. I figured the caliper was seized (not dragging) and was essentially doing zero braking, causing the pull and the overloaded LH pad/caliper was groaning because of it.

I replaced the RH caliper, the pads were actually in very good shape, true and not scored or anything, and the rotor looked fine aside from slight surface imperfections which I thought would even out after driving for some time. I'm still getting pulling to the left, but no more groaning noise from the LH side, and much faster stops.

I'm also now getting a light scraping noise from the RH side, as the rotor makes each revolution.

Should I have the rotors turned down and replace the pads? Should I also replace the LH caliper too? The brake hoses were replaced about 6 months ago, and the fluid was flushed.

Thanks,
Nick

Sounds like warped rotors or allignment. But that's mytwo-penn'orth.

I would replace both rotors and pads.

Other items that have caused brake "pull", and mentioned in various sections on here are:

Seizing balljoints, usually the lower.
Seizing tie rod ends.

My first stab would be as I stated, Pads and Rotors.

From what you have said, most of the obvious mechanical culprits at the wheel can be ruled out. It might be worth bleeding the RH front wheel just to eliminate the possibility of air in the line. Thereafter I am beginning to question the ABS. Can you take the vehicle to have its brakes tested at a garage? They would be able to put it on a rolling road to measure braking efficiency at each wheel, which should provide a definitive answer, but if the valve for releasing pressure to the rh front wheel was stuck or leaking, that could be the culprit. I take it your abs warning light comes on with the ignition, then goes out?

Thanks for the replies.

I did bleed the RH front wheel after replacing the caliper, and was getting clean, clear fluid.

My ABS light comes on, then goes off, just as it should. A few weeks ago, I removed the ABS module from the pump assembly, and resoldered the pump motor solder joints which were faulty and giving me an intermittent ABS light. That's all perfect now.

The steering rack is only about a year old. I replaced it with a reman unit, with new inner tie rods, and I replaced the outers when installing the rack. The alignment was done then and is fine. Tire pressure and wear, of course, has been checked and is perfect.

Both front brake hoses were replaced by my Jaguar mechanic after finding the rubber cracked around the crimps. Apparently, whoever did the last brake job for the P.O. installed the hoses in a twisted state, which, when the weight of the car was lowered down on the ground, was causing the hoses to be twisted and stressed even more, causing them to separate. The entire system was flushed then.

I did a little "burnishing" of the pads today, driving with two feet, that is. For 10 seconds at a time, I drove a constant speed while applying moderate pressure to the brake pedal, then letting them cool for a few minutes. This seems to have lessen the pull a bit. I'll have to see if repeated sessions help to correct the issue.

If not, I'll be looking at replacing the front rotors and pads, but I'll have to order them as no parts stores around me carry them in-store; they must be ordered.

Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this.

Thanks,
Nick

Also, here are some pictures of the swept area of each front rotor:


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...7a8d2dde2.jpeg

Front Left Rotor - Pretty clean

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...2e81583e2.jpeg

Front Right Rotor - Spots and scoring

It definitely looks as if you are not getting full pressure into that rotor. Could any of your metal pipes have been damaged when you were working on the flexible hoses? If there was a kink or crease in the offending line, it would have the effect of restricting pressure to the calliper. Different pad types across the axle can cause issues too, but the photographs suggest that the disc isn't being "squeed" as hard as the other one.

I agree, I have a feeling that the seized caliper was the cause of less squeezing, so now I'm trying to figure out if the lack of sweeping the pads against the rotor for so long is causing the pull, or if there's a restriction somewhere.

I will say that the car definitely has better braking than before, and I am getting an even amount of brake dust on the front wheels for the first time in a long time. That alone is promising.