brakes drive me insane

[bhardy]

With only a few days to go until my 1988 350i will be re-inspected to get a dutch license plate, all the thing which needed replacing or fixing are done and working..........except for the brakes. The car pulls to the right when braking and that is not allowed. Had the car tested on a brake test machine and it appears to have a difference between the left and right wheel of more than 30% (so the rightside brakes better). This morning i fitted my brake disks (which i had 'sharpend' by a brake specialist)look like new and new brake pads. I also replaced the old brake fluid. But........the car still brakes to the right Does anybody have a clue why it's doing this???????? Callipers seem ok cause they do provide some pressure, can there be a difference in pressure between the left-side and right-side calliper??




>>> Edited by bhardy on Wednesday 18th June 11:41

[bhardy]

oh i forgot to mention that after the test drive a friend of mine drove the car into the garage and drove my car into a brickwall........ after hearing a big cracking noise i was glad to see that the damage is not that big just a cracked bumper, a few bites from the front of the car and a loss of pretty much paint.

[shpub]

Tried bleeding them?
Could also be knackered suspension, loose tie rods on the front causing the car to self steer.

>> Edited by shpub on Wednesday 18th June 12:21

[rev-erend]

One of the calipers could be stuck or sticking..
if you free it off then the brake balance - left
to right should then be OK.

[bhardy]

The brakes were tested on a brake test rolling machine (excuse me for the bad english skills) where only the front wheels are on the rolls and i had all suspension bushes fitted with poly ones last month so i recon that the machine has no influence on the suspention and therefore cannot explain the braking to the left. But i'm just a amateur so please tell me if my assumptions are wrong!!! Could it perhapes be the rubber hose between the calliper and the pipeline which goes to the master cylinder?



>> Edited by bhardy on Wednesday 18th June 12:58

>> Edited by bhardy on Wednesday 18th June 13:02

[sevans]

Try bleeding the brakes from the faulty side. If fluid comes out OK then I wouldn't have thought there was a restriction/blockage in the pipe. Have the calipers been stripped down? If not I would have thought the most likely cause is a sticking piston in the caliper.

[tcpc]

sometimes the rubber brake hoses perish from in side but look fine from out side, you still get fluid when bleeding the bakes this could be enough to cause the problem,

Tony

[350zwelgje]

I have my old original disks, calipers and brake pads(original Dutch 350i) in the (wine)cellar. Left overs of upgrading to 300mm 4-pot calipers.
If they can be of use send me a mail via my profile.

Rob (Dutch 350i 1987, Belgium)

[arcturus]

Had exactly this problem on my 87 350i. Tried bleeding and all the usual tricks to no avail. In the end the solution was to completely strip down and clean the left hand calliper where it was found that the piston was sticking slightly in its housing. New seals etc and it was fine. At the same time it was discovered that the front anti-roll bar was loose and could move on its own by 1/4 inch either way. This was tightened up at the same time, so i'm not sure which had most effect on curing the problem.

Sniffer

[bhardy]

Thanks a lot for the reactions guys!! Have had everything taken off and brought the callipers and flex hoses to a brakes specialist. So i'll have them back tomorrow and then have: new disks, brake pads, flex hoses and good callipers. Hope this will solve the problem, altough the brake specialist found the callipers and hoses to be quite good and has his doubts that it will solve the problem entirely... Can it be anything else?? Tested it twice on a rollar which doesn't have anyting to do with the suspention so can't be that........or can it....

>> Edited by bhardy on Friday 20th June 16:24