Hey guys. Haven't logged in here in some time. Hope everyone is doing great and wishing everyone and their family a great holiday season.

03 ex, v10 4x4 with 177k

I was getting a grinding noise when braking so I pulled in to a Brake Masters shop here in Scottsdale AZ. They told me the pads were shot and dug into the rotor.
They recommended replacing front pads and rotors with bendix parts along with a brake flush and bleeding lines.

Soon after, I was getting an intermittent pull to the right when I hit the brakes. Usually around 50mph+ . Quite scary, especially for the people on the lane to my right when all of a sudden a beast of a truck almost drives over their lowered honda civic... Lol...

Took it back in and they sold me new bendix calipers and bled the lines again at no charge.

A day or two later and the truck pulls to the right everytime the brake is applied now at 30+ mph. You can see the steering wheel turn right and the truck follows.
Took it back in and they said I had air in the lines still and proceeded to bleed. They test drove it and realized it didn't change a thing. They noticed the front driver side hub assembly had quite a bit of play and recommended a new assembly to fix it. They also mentioned the possibility of being a bad brake hose and said they saw a ford tbs notice saying brake pull are related to bad/worn spring bushings or something.

I took it in to another shop, they confirmed the bad hub assembly and replaced it. Drove the car and same thing. They looked at the pads, rotors and calipers, greased the pins. Said the passenger side pins were definitely new and greased but couldn't tell if the driver side pins were new and said one of them was bone dry.
It didn't do much at first and the guy told me to give it until the end of the day.

Next day or so, still no improvement and took it back in to brake masters for a left and right hose replacement and bleed.

Today the truck still pulls when braking. I'm running out of ideas and it is starting to get quite costly. What do u guys think it could be. Could worn bushings really be the culprit?
I'm tired of these guys just throwing parts at it and not fixing the problem.

 

Don't rule out the pull coming from the rear brakes, after you drive it walk around and feel both rear hubs a really hot one should tell you which one is hanging up or braking more than the other..

 

Thanks Bigpipes...
I will definitely check that out next time I drive it.

 

If your Ex tend to steer right when you use your breaks, means that the
right side is braking stronger than the left side.
Think logic....
That gives you several reasons.....
The right side breaks stronger can shows that the weaker side is driverside.
They are unequal.
You changed your pads, discs, lubed your pins and bleeded everything?
Hm....it can be a problem in your brake controller. Some sort of pressure valve?
Even one problem in the ABS sensor can give you such problems.

 

Thanks GermanMike.
Any ideas how to troubleshoot any of them?
After sinking over $1k in this ordeal would it be time to take in to the dealership for a diagnostic?

 

Doing the aftermath is always easy, I know, and to do the right steps in the right
order is often difficult.
Lets face the facts...
Your X have rightward tendences while you hit the brakes.
So you need to know first if the right side breaks stronger or the left less
and as the second point how much difference is between front and rear.
Of course there is more power on your front breaks.
I dont know neither how you do it in the US nor what its called, but this thing
tests the break ability of one axle and shows it digital how much break power
is aplied to the simulated road (4 rollers). If you do this for the front and the rear you will get some answers which will circle the problem closer, than throwing a bunch of cash for needless parts on your X.
The most shops love playing "try and error" at your costs......

For me, at this point, it sounds like a sticking proportional valve in the breakcontroller or something like that.
......BUT it can be also a lot of other reasons.... kind of misalignment, different worn front wheels.....
You need to check your breakabilities on a testing thingalinga.

 

I hate to throw a monkey wrench into all this but I wait until the brakes are metal to metal and then put the bottom of the line pads in myself (original drums) and its good (with no pull) for another 50k miles, and the total price was about $20. How are your balljoints? If they are bad they can cause pulling and almost ending up in the other lane. What happens is when you hit the brakes the wheel(s) quickly change their alignment and off you go.

One of my front drums has a groove in it from someone putting the shoes in backwards at one time and still no pull.......check those ball joints.

 

Hey Brent.....thats why I said alignment.....
but he has to be sure that his brakes are ok and that he can prelude them.

 

Hey All - long time reader, first time poster. I just went through identical issue with my 02 Ex. I replaced rotors (centric premiums) and pads (motorcraft SD) at all four corners. It immediately started pulling to the left upon braking at speeds >30 mph. Did not pull prior so I knew it was something I did.

Since the steering wheel jerked, I realized that it should be a front brake issue. Since it pulled to the left, the realized the left side caliper is gabbing harder. I then remembered I had a bear of time getting the right front brake pads to fit in. The end tabs of the pads seemed sightly too big and I had to tap (really smash) them to into place.

So I took the front right pads back out (I had to pry them out with a pry bar - realizing at that point they were WAY too tight and probably binding). I filed the tabs corners down so that they would pop into place by hand (snug but not loose). It took a couple of filings to get the fit right. I remounted everything and the brake pull was gone.

Ghazad - My two cents says look at the brake pad tabs on the left side and make sure they are moving freely. I suspect they are binding up and not grabbing the rotor as hard as the right side. Good luck.

 

Good call, that would act like a frozen pin. Did you check the ball joints yet?

 

No, we will diagnose it for you.

 

It's amazing how crappy some brake pads fit. Experienced this many times.

 

My EBCs Rotors and Yellow Stuff Pads fits like a Swissmade Clock.
Maybe its the old sentence.....
You get what you paid for

 

I've used hawk pads that had the same crappy fit.
I guess they expect you to file them down.

 

Thats why I swear on EBC Brakes. They are British and its not easy to say for
me as a German, that a british product is better than any german quality product, but they are proven the best brakes you can buy. Not only for our rigs.