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Car pulls when braking (intermittent problem)

No that's not true, if it was my father and myself would have ruined every master cyl on every single car we have ever owned.
 
Okay thanks. I will get the brakes done Friday hopefully.


Going back to my problem, would it mean anything if the harder I hit the brakes the more likely it is to pull? Also, would the car ever try to countersteer iteself to compensate for whatever is pulling it left?
 
If there is air in the lines or the fluid is bad I could see the car pulling more the harder you brake. and as far as counter steering to correct itself.. that would most likely happen because the roads has low spots from all the cars and trucks that have travelled on it in the past

bad drawing..jpg

If you are in the center and use the brakes and the car pulls right the shape of the road would cause the car to want to go to the left. it is generally worse on cars that have shorter or stiffer sidewalls. I have heard it could be caused by directional tires as well, but I don't really know.
 
the car will follow the "ruts" in the road more when the alignment is set with a toe-out. That might feel like pulling also.
 
https://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?A=UBP83127A_0150351777&An=599001+101995+50026+2026005+26492&Ar=AND(P_RecType%3aA)

628055.jpg


I was going to do this today, but I ran into a little issue. I bought this "hardware kit" from NAPA for the slide pin bushings. On my 1995 Zetec, there is a cap that plugs into the OEM slide pin bushing that serves as a dust guard. However, the diameter of the cap is the same diameter as the back half of the NAPA bushing itself, therefore I cannot pop the dust cap into it.

So, are all aftermarket slide pin bushings like this, that is, they do not use dust caps? Or is this bushing from a later year Contour and Ford changed the size for some reason?
 
necronommicon- Just go to a local parts store and get the pins. With shipping its almost exactly the same cost.
 
that should be way more then enough to bleed the whole system. make sure to turkey baster the resivior first then bleed everything.
 
Yea, I do not think I am going to be bleeding the system... When I did my oil change today I looked at the passenger side bleeder and the nut looks like it is one piece with the stem... There are no threads on either side of the nut... I only see the larger threads that screw it into the caliper... Can I replace the bleeders without having to take apart the caliper?
 
Well, I am only going to be able to bleed the fronts and the clutch. I have drums on the rear, and one of the bleeders is rusted real badly. It is supposed to be an 8mm wrench, but when you put that on it is way too loose. I know that if I tried to force a 7mm on, when I try and turn it the bleeder would snap. Oh well.

Anyways, I have no interest in ever working on drum brakes, LOL. When they need new shoes again I will probably just convert to discs. But, I would like to inspect them today since I have the back tires off. Right now the drums are loose on the wheel, but there is something preventing me from pulling them off. Before I try and pry them off, I just want to be sure that there are no springs or anything that I will have to deal with to get the drums back on.
 
Well I managed to get the drums off. I thought that the shoes had worn unevenly, but from looking on Rock Auto it looks like one of the shoes is supposed to be thinner than the other. I will go to NAPA tomorrow and get new bleeder screws for the rear. I figure, if I try to get the rusted one out the stem breaks, it is no big deal since the valve itself will still be shut.

I did get new rotors, pads, slide pins, and slide pin bushings on today. I also went ahead and bled the front brakes and the clutch; not that hard. I did take it for a test drive, but it was hard to tell if the problem has gone away 100%. I guess only time will tell.
 
So here is what I did:

Replace front rotors
Replace front pads
Replace front slide pin bushings
Replace front slide pins
Bleed rear brakes
Bleed front brakes
Bleed clutch

The problem definitely still appears to be there. This makes no sense to me, argh :(
 
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