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[Risky Duckfeet]

Hi again,
Just fitted a new offside lower arm as you may have seen in my previous thread.
Problem that I have now is that the car is pulling to the left quite significantly when the brakes are applied. I'm not sure but it may have been the fact that we were using WD40 to get the bolts moving when changing the arm. The other thing that we did was put a jack under the disc to lift the hub off the ball joint pin. So I'm wondering if this might have warped the disc so that the pads are not closing?
If it's WD40 causing the problem will this burn off or is there any way of cleaning it off, or will the pads have absorbed it?

Maybe there are other suggestions that you have about the cause. I don't think that the brake lines are damaged as we were very careful around them but we did have the track rod end off so that we could move the hub around.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Kieren

[mr ICE man]

try some brake cleaner and see if it helps mate!

[Risky Duckfeet]

Thanks mate.
I've just been over to my mates house and had a look.  A couple of things that we have noticed are:
The offside brake is working and I managed to make a small skid mark down his road with both sides.
The nearside inside pad has worn a lot more than the outside one.
When the car pulls to the left the steering turns a bit to the right.
We have used an old tracking set and it looks like the tracking is outward rather than inward.

Really hoping someone has had this problem before as my mate is quite clued up about these things and is totally stumped by it.

Cheers all.

[Mr Skrunts]

Not sure if the calipers are like the Carltons or not (I dont do my own brakes)  and if they are on sliders then they might be sticking.  Maybe need taking out and cleaning and possibly a bit of copperslip on them.  (If they are the same typr that is)

[alank46]

Not really good practice, but swap the pads from one side to the other and see if the pull changes sides as well. If it does, you need new pads. if it doesn't swap the pads back as they will have worn to the profile of their matching discs.  I must stress that this is not good practice and you do this at your own risk.
Alan

Thanks mate.
I've just been over to my mates house and had a look.  A couple of things that we have noticed are:
The offside brake is working and I managed to make a small skid mark down his road with both sides.
The nearside inside pad has worn a lot more than the outside one.
When the car pulls to the left the steering turns a bit to the right.
We have used an old tracking set and it looks like the tracking is outward rather than inward.

Really hoping someone has had this problem before as my mate is quite clued up about these things and is totally stumped by it.

Cheers all.

[tidla]

new mot with brake test?
not had the brakes apart? (other than jacking on the disc)
check the disc first, jack up the ( offside? ) and spin the wheel. the resistance should be the even. any tight spots would indicate bent disc.pads should just be in contact with the disc.

did not understand the bit about the vehicle pulling to the left but the steering wheel going right?

steering wheel shaking from left to right= bent brake disc

[Risky Duckfeet]

The disc is alright. I don't understand either unless i've done something to the suspension when wiggling it around or something like that.
The MOT was a retest so they didn't check the brakes the second time.
Funny though because I didn't notice anything when I drove home last night after changing the lower arm, it was this morning that it started.
Now I'm wondering if someone is messing around with my car because I had a couple of nails in a tire the other day and now it's behaving really oddly when I brake. It's driving perfectly well otherwise :question :question :question

[Dracoro]

Check for play in the wishbones/bushes.

Had same/similar issue on an Omega I had years ago. It needed new front wishbones (probably bushes gone I'd guess).

[Risky Duckfeet]

Just had it down at a garage to have the tracking done. When he finished I drove the car out and the wheel was about an eighth of a turn to the right when driving straight.
Took it back and as I turned in to the garage there was a clunk from the offside.
The tracking had gone off already.
So he jacked the car up and we found that there was play on the offside wheel, which seems to be the bearing. Everything else is tight as and so it seems that that must be what it is.
I'm going to get a new bearing fitted tomorrow along with new pads and see if that does the trick.

[feeutfo]

hang on a minute, have you fitted one wishbone? or a pair?

[KW]

hang on a minute, have you fitted one wishbone? or a pair?

From what he said in the original post, just the one 

@ Risky,

Suspension & braking components should ALWAYS be changed in pairs.
I'd also forget "tracking", you WILL need a FULL geometry setup afterwards if you want any hope of the car behaving as it should.

[feeutfo]

hang on a minute, have you fitted one wishbone? or a pair?

From what he said in the original post, just the one 

@ Risky,

Suspension & braking components should ALWAYS be changed in pairs.
I'd also forget "tracking", you WILL need a FULL geometry setup afterwards if you want any hope of the car behaving as it should.

indeed, ALWAYS in pairs.
1st off, you'll have one nice new tight wishbone, and another slopping around all over the place which was previously was slopping around in pairs giving balanced toe out underbraking, now you've got one new toeing out far less giveing a pull you have to steer into to keep the car straight.
2nd, even if the old wishbone is not to blame for the pull, the old wishbone will fail before the other meaning another 60 to 80 odd quid to set the camber and toe again. Double the cost.

3rd point, what and how have you set the camber to on the new wish bone? If one side is set to max and the other is miles out it that wont help either.

[feeutfo]

just to add, the wheel baring will have to be practically falling off before you'll feel the symptoms your getting.

[Risky Duckfeet]

I'm guessing that by camber you mean the vertical angle of the wheel?
I didn't even know that you could change that.
When I said that I had the tracking done, the guy who did it set the two front wheels with a laser against each other and to the back wheels. Is that a geometrical set up? I can change the other wishbone tomorrow if I need to but need to know what to do after that.
If you tell me what I need to do and where to have it done I will go and get it done.
Thanks everyone for all your help so far.
Thanks everyone.

[feeutfo]

I'm guessing that by camber you mean the vertical angle of the wheel?
I didn't even know that you could change that.
When I said that I had the tracking done, the guy who did it set the two front wheels with a laser against each other and to the back wheels. Is that a geometrical set up? I can change the other wishbone tomorrow if I need to but need to know what to do after that.
If you tell me what I need to do and where to have it done I will go and get it done.
Thanks everyone for all your help so far.
Thanks everyone.

Advise changing old wishbone and any other suspension components that may be suspect, then go to Wheels in motion, in Chesham.

To save you tyres on as much as possible on the journey to wim, set the camber to as close to vertical as possible, this is hard to judge as the angle changes when the car is jacked, WIith both wheels off the ground, use a socket of relevent diameter as a feeler gauge between wheel rim and shock body on the old wishbone side to set the camber. Set it the same both sides for now. The trick to this is setting the two bottom bolts on the bottom of the shock to a tightness that allows the wheel hub to move when moving it by hand, but not slop down once set, then remove the wheel and tighten the bolts proper.