I was playing camera car for a freind of mine as he raced a neon. Naturally this was happening in a safe, legally sanctioned event . Anyway, for reasons unknow to me the civic in front of me applied the brakes RAPIDLY. Now, I've always had a problem with the rear right tire locking up LONG before anything else was even getting close. As I was turning left to get around the civic my inside right locked up, even with the weight transfering to it, it still chose to go first. At 95mph I was spinning out of control, and it all happened quite rapidly. Luckly it was in a safe, legally santioned event so I simply slid to a halt and went on my merry way. The point is there are mini-vans that will stop harder and faster than my car because of the rear-right lock up. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Have you personally done all the brakes on your car (or had them done) since you purchased it?

My initial suspicion would be a different pad/rotor on the problem tire, or possibly some blockages in the various lines going to other brakes.

Also, the brake proportioning valve is supposed to help transfer braking load to the front - it could be part of the problem.

I'd pull both rear brakes off, and look at the rotors & pads to make sure they're matched. While you're at it, bleed both lines to make sure they're clean.

-=Russ=-

 

What year car do you have? Cars made in '86 don't have anti lock brakes. I would rebuild/replace that caliper, and check the metering valve in the master cylinder. If your car has ABS, ('87+) I'd have the metering device in the master cylinder checked out, check the caliper (same as above) and see if you can download any check engine codes. Does the ABS light come on? There's a lot more involved with the ABS wheel speed sensors and that whole system, so get the Haynes manual and see if you can troubleshoot it down.

 

Mine is an 86' and I'm thinking Syonk's hypothsis will turn out to be right. The pads look like the same kind, but the wear is a little different, so next step will probably end up being new pads, rotors, and lines as well as a thourough(sp like crazy) flush, new fluid for that matter. I had planned on doing this, but it looks like the time came sooner than later.

I guess I was hoping someone would say "yeah, that's a common problem, squeeze a lemon into your master cylinder and bleed the brakes, you be fine" or some down-home easy as pie and cheap remedy like that.

 

lol^^, WTF, "squeeze a lemon", hahaha

yeah, bleed brakes. if that doesn't work change your pads (in pairs, not individually). if that doesn't work get the more complicated parts worked out, like the mentioned master cylinder and system valves...might want to get somebody else to do that

 

Actually, it sounds like you have a caliper hanging up. It could be something simple as just the hardware on the brakes are dirty or you have a bad caliper/valving. I find it hard to believe that you would have air in the all the lines except for the caliper farthest from the master.

Just my 2 cents

 

yes, as do i. but getting that out of the way you can move on to the more probable causes, since bleeding brakes is an easy thing to do, and you should do it anyways...on second thought, you may want to change the pads first, since you will have to bleed the brakes for that anyway.

 

Hanging caliper. You likely will need to replace it. I would not drive in a car thats been having wheel lock problems if you paid me to. You're seriously asking to be killed...so get that thing fixed. I was on I-64 here in VA once, and some idiot SLAMMED on the brakes when he sees some stupid cop up ahead. Well my brake booster decides to take a **** on me at the same time I hit the brakes. That was scary as hell...the car was still stoppable, but I had to apply much more pressure to get it to stop.

-Joe