for anyone whose already read my other post about the toyo proxes, ive recently started to have a problem while driving. before when i had the stock wheels on this never occured until i changed them out. upon putting on the proxes, i started to notice resistance on the front right side tire. basically two things occur. once i hit about 35mph+ my steering wheel starts to rattle and also the tire pulls to the right or left.. but even more so when i'm breaking does it do it. i just had an alignment done today and the problem still exists. *not saying that would fix it but yea*. anyone have any ideas why this might be happening?

 

Well, unless there is a problem with the wheel bearings or the caliper I would have to state that you have a bad tire. Take the one from the right front and move it to the right rear and see what happens.
Also when you pull the wheel off inspect the pads on the right side. See if you have excessive wear on the inboard pad or there is alot of resistance when you spin the wheel.

 

i don't think its the tire, because when i originally put on the toyo proxes, that is when it first began to occur. those are off and now other tires are on and it still is happening. i think the disc brake is worn and cracked on the front right side.

 

Well, then still swap front to rear for the vibration problem. You may have a bad rim. If the rotor is cracked it will heat up the pads excessively. That means you possible have a bad caliper.

 

well before i even did the tire swap, when i had the stock tires on it, there was an excessive amount of squeeking coming from the right from side of the car. i'm guessing this eventually led to the problem thats occuring now?

 

Well that would be your 1st clue. Get the car looked at and fixed before you have an accident and ruin some poor innocent persons day. You don't screw around with tires and especially not brakes.

 

yea I understand. i'll have it checked out tomorrow. thanks for the advice and help.

 

Yeah, I bet the caliper is binding internally. When I first got my car, I tried to push it a couple feet on a concrete slab. Could not budge it. The right front caliper was bad. Had lots of rust inside it, and stepping on brake pedal had caused the piston to move out, but it would not go back in.
A reman caliper was around $25-30, at the time.

 

Another thing to check is the brake *hose*. They deteriorate inside & act like a one-way valve, keeping pressure on the caliper after you let off the brakes.
HTH,
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

Some people are like a Slinky, not good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.

 

the hoses are very prone to collapsing internally as Paul stated. a cheap way to check brake binding without even pulling the tire is to jack the car up on the side that you feel the brake is binding and try to spin the tire. the tire should spin freely and without drag. you should remove the tire and visually inspect the rotors for bluing, uneven pad wear(right side will be more worn than left), and brake hose condition. if you do replace any braking system component, replace it as a set. meaning, if you replace the right front brake hose, also replace the left.

 

well i'll definately have to look into all of this. i want to get this fixed asap so i don't risk getting into an accident with anyone. thanks for all the help guys! i'll keep the thread updated once i have these things looked at.

 

okay well, im definately planning on replacing the calipers but the thing is, that only seems that it would have an effect while breaking. at about 2500+ RPMs the steering wheel started to shake (rattle) left to right when i try to put it exactly straight. if i leave the steering wheel as is, its turned slightly to the right side. supposedly once i got the change in tires, an alignment would fix that problem, although it hasn't. any ideas on what could be the cause of that?

 

Being that your brakes have been locking on the right side I would have to guess that the rotor is severely warped on that side. Also due to the excessive heat also that is generated by that problem there may be problems with the wheel bearings also.
There is a possibility of alot of things going on here. Just because you had it aligned does not mean that all the steering/suspension components are good. You may have a worn out ball joint on that side, worn out tie rods or bad idler arm bushings.
Because the brakes are pulling hard to the right means that when you attempt to straighten the wheel with probably a very warped rotor would cause excessive vibration thru the wheel.

You need to correct what you know to be bad first. Also inspect and service the wheel bearings on the bad side. Inspect all the steering/suspension components and go from there.

 

well it's decied that i'm most likely going to be replacing the rotors, calipers, and putting on new racing pads for the front left and right side of the car. hopefully this will take care of whats going on. do you know the best place to get calipers, price wise?

 

Try rockauto.com

 

If I get the calipers w/o the mounting brackets, do I still need those to effectively get it put on?

 

You reuse your brackets. Those are the pieces that are a pain to remove. The actual hydraulic portion of the caliper is the only part you need to replace.

 

oh ok, so this should be fine then:

A-1 CARDONE Part # 19570 {[Caliper w/Installation Hardware] Reman.}
Front Right and Left; OE Metal Piston;Supplied w/o Mounting Bracket

 

eh, my mechanic said that the ones from rockauto are really crappy. he was going to order them from IMC which would be $125 each. i guess i'm just gonna go with those.

 

Nothing wrong with the ones I bought from rockauto... Is he trying to make some extra money or something? Saying that calipers from rockauto are crap is a pretty broad statement to make.

 

how have the ones you've bought from rockauto been working? how long have you had them on now?

 

No issues at all. I also bought four calipers and four rotors for my Audi and have had no problems...

 

I see. I'd doubt that it'd make a difference for a mazda. I'll have to figure this out then, thanks kentetsu.

 

Depending on his account from IMC he is paying the same for them as you would be buying them at Rock auto which is about $25.00 a piece exchange.

 

i'm not sure I quite understand what you mean by $25 a piece exhange. care to explain?