First noticed this about four months ago. Emergency braking maneuver to avoid hitting a merging car that did not yield right of way.

Car pulled very hard to the right.

Since then I've been "tuned" to that behavior, and have noticed the car will occasionally pull a bit left or a bit right under varying degree of brake pedal pressure.

checked tire pressure--OK.

steering pull happened with original equipment tires/wheels, and after market tires/wheels.

going into honda friday for a routine maintenance. would like to have information that others may have experienced.

hydraulic brake system issues???
front end alignment issues???

 

Was the pavement even?
Have you bled or flushed your brake fluid at regular intervals?
Check alignment?
Check driver? You may not have the wheels pointed straight when you slam on the brakes. Being smooth with the application of the brake pedal will provide an opportunity to correct.

Then again, you said "emergency" and I'm sure that visiting mental notes to smoothly apply the brakes and point the wheels straight are low on the list.

What I am trying to say is that in a high stress environment you may accidentally initiate the behavior you described. The car pulling to one side may even be an automatic reaction... the car may end up pointing to the place you've picked out for escape if the car doesn't stop fast enough. I've been guilty of this in the past, and emergency situations are difficult to simulate for practice. The habit may be hard to break.

 

Find a nice level parking lot somewhere and do some repeated braking and see if the behavior repeats itself. If it does, I would say the most likely culprit would be the front suspension.

edit: spelling

 

regarding the avoidance maneuver, i may have influenced the movement, but i still recall a strong force to overcome. and i do notice this "pull" (much less forceful) at other times, under normal, quiescent braking conditions (but it's intermittent), so whatever it is there's more to it than the driver.

i have 14.5K miles on the car, and never had a reason to get involved with the brake system. i'll let the honda guys snoop around on friday as far as that goes.

suspension is certainly an item not to rule out. but i haven't curbed the car, zero pot holes, no collisions, etc.

alignment is something also that might be involved.

i'll pay more attention as i drive back for forth to work when i brake traveling straight ahead.

cheers.--ml

 

I had an alignment done when I changed my tires at 7K miles, ml. The car was delivered to me with toe pretty far off, I believe. I have no reason to suspect that I knocked it out.

However, the car is sensitive to pavement dips/grooves no matter what. It'll pull one way or another during braking if the pavement isn't perfectly level. On a straightaway, no braking, however, it's solid as a rock.

Do the alignment when you change your tires; it's probably the best $80 you can spend on your car. If that doesn't work, you'll know to pursue it further.

 

My CRX did the same exact thing, turned out to be a Stuck passenger's side capiler piston.

So I replaced both of them (best to do calipers in pairs) and everything is fine now.

Easy way to tell, if you have a stuck caliper, the side that is stuck - the brake rotor will be hotter than the blazes of hell..... exceedingly hotter then the opposite side.
Don't get me wrong, brake rotors get hot, but you can still put your finger on them for 3 seconds or so... with a stuck caliper you'll know, it'd be like sticking your finger in a fire.

 

thanks all.

i'll insist on an alignment when i bring the car in for maintenance on friday.

time permitting i may do an experiment tomorrow wrt the checking rotor temp/calipers.--ml

 

Sounds normal due to sloping roads and slight negative camber (S2000 traits)

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by melesniak
regarding the avoidance maneuver, i may have influenced the movement, but i still recall a strong force to overcome.

 

Bet ya' a buck that the toe alignment is off, Racer. Definitely bring it to a trusted place with Hunter 4-wheel alignment equip.

Save your tires (if it's not too late)...