I was on my way home from work today when the car in front of me slammed on it's brakes because a squirrel ran into the road. Needless to say, I had to hit mine, too. The car jerked hard to the left and I had problems pulling it back, so I just kept on going in the left turn lane and went along my way, heart pounding. Had another car been there, it would've been a travesty. I just purchased the car a week ago from a guy who said he'd done the front brakes just a month or two ago and exchanged them for discs. He mentioned the rear brakes were bad, but I'm doubting that created my situation. The car actually pulls a little to the right when I'm driving, but it does need a front-end alignment and I'd assumed that was why it did it, but pulling to the left is a new discovery for me. I was hoping maybe one of you guys could shed some light on this, as I actually bought the car to learn about cars. It's a 73 Comet, if it makes any difference. Is this common? Did the guy screw up the brake job? I'd just like to get it fixed. Thanks, Steve
Is the brake pedal spongy at all? And when he did the disc swap, did he use new parts like the rotors, calipers and pads or junkyard pulls?
if the steering wheel pulled in one direction or the other, you may have a bad brake pad clip or a dragging brake pad. if the rear pulled you in one direction or the other then there may be one of the drums dragging/needing adjustment.
I had this problem(dont have discs), but discovered it was just a right break hose that was a little twisted. The result of this was more brake fluid going to the left brake, therefore pulling it left....
Also an axle seal could be leaking in the rear getting gear oil into the rear shoes. When you get them hot (like a panic stop) they can lock up tight as a drum.
That is some scary crap! I did that once in a VW and ended up rear-ending a Pinto (no explosion, luckily) when the car went 45* with one rear brake grabbing more than the other. I had just told my roommate 3 days earlier, "I really need to rebuild those rear brakes. " Totalled both cars. Luckily, nobody was hurt except for my broken big toe...the one that slammed on the brake! In this case, I would take it to the shop and let someone rebuild them all, unless you are really good with brakes and have a good safe location to test them out (ie. haul a$$ and slam on em where there is no traffic and lots of safe space!). It is too bad that most of us find out our brake problems only when we actually need the brakes to work the most. I always go out to a large parking lot, like a mall (late at night on a Sunday, no cops around), and just abuse them after I do brake work. I want to make sure that there is no pull, lockups, etc before I need them to work in an emergency situation.
scoop, that was the video i watched on vehicle safety design. they were showing how safe the old cars were and they showed a VW bug rearending a pinto so that both gas tanks were split open, thus the explosion. and i thought it was staged
I didn't know about the exploding pintos, but afterwards, for years, everyone asked "did the pinto blow up?" I hate to brag, but I hit him hard...hard enough that when you looked at his car from the side, you could see a clear angle in the frame at the door, where the front half of the frame went up about 8-10", then dropped back down behind the door. Maybe he had an empty tank???
Wow guys, thanks for the replies. I'll definitely check everything out, I'm hoping it's as simple as a twisted brake line hose, but I'm a bit "in-the-season" for St. Patrick's day right now, so I'll check it tomorrow if it's not raining.
Scoop, an empty tank would be the worst. Vapors are more flamable/explosive than the liquid gas itself.
I don't know...all I know is that I hit him hard enough to total both cars, and no explosion. After the fact, I wish it WOULD have exploded, so at least I would have a good story to tell my children and grandchildren...
