Reduced braking performance
#1
Reduced braking performance
In the past 2 weeks or so, I noticed something strange with my car. Whenever it's wet out and I have the car parked for a while and just start driving, my initial attempt at braking isn't very good. Probably water in between the rotor and pads, right? Obvious, right? However, it has never happened to me before and I've had this car for over 2 years now.
Is this a sign of brake pad wear? I'm on my original OEM pads and I have ~55K miles on the car. The pads aren't worn down significantly, although I could use a new set prior to the summer months. Is this what could cause my problem?
In addition (and this is scary), when I'm on the highway at highway speeds (in the rain/wet) and I brake, the car will shift left. If I "skim" the water off the rotors with light braking and try again, the car tracks a little straighter on braking. This has never happened to me before. Is this a sign of worn pads? Worn to the point where the friction coefficients are sightly different? Maybe the two front pad sets are not worn evenly?
Tire pressures are okay, although I'm on much softer/meatier winter tires (Blizzak WS60s).
Thanks for the help.
Is this a sign of brake pad wear? I'm on my original OEM pads and I have ~55K miles on the car. The pads aren't worn down significantly, although I could use a new set prior to the summer months. Is this what could cause my problem?
In addition (and this is scary), when I'm on the highway at highway speeds (in the rain/wet) and I brake, the car will shift left. If I "skim" the water off the rotors with light braking and try again, the car tracks a little straighter on braking. This has never happened to me before. Is this a sign of worn pads? Worn to the point where the friction coefficients are sightly different? Maybe the two front pad sets are not worn evenly?
Tire pressures are okay, although I'm on much softer/meatier winter tires (Blizzak WS60s).
Thanks for the help.
#4
Originally Posted by cryptotek,Mar 15 2010, 01:24 PM
If my car sits overnight in the rain, I can feel/hear a little rust come off of the rotors at my first stop sign the next morning.
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#8
Originally Posted by JLUDE
Sounds normal...the water will not come off the rotors till they are warmed up, then it evaporates and they stay relatively dry even in the rain.
Originally Posted by Mike21
doesn't sound normal to me.... how fast are you going when you approach this stop sign? how far down do you have to depress the pedal?
Originally Posted by CKit
Best thing is to jack up the car and inspect the rotors and pads.
#10
I don't know what normal is, but if i were only experiencing something like this in the rain and noticed no change in braking feel on dry roads, i would just attribute my loss in braking feel to the weather and probably wouldn't worry about it. How would you describe the change, as very subtle, subtle, noticeable, very noticeable, extremely noticeable. I would imagine that it's normal for braking distances to increase in wet roads, less friction to slow the vehicle down.
As for swerving to one side, how hard are you braking that it's scary, I'm driving around in a Land Rover that's braking in the front with only the passenger side caliper(driver side seized-to lazy to replace) and it also swerves really nastily to one side when i slam the brakes, but i wouldn't say it's scary. As you're braking is the abs kicking in as you brake? Should the VSA do something here to help keep the car straight?
I don't know, it sounds weird.
As for swerving to one side, how hard are you braking that it's scary, I'm driving around in a Land Rover that's braking in the front with only the passenger side caliper(driver side seized-to lazy to replace) and it also swerves really nastily to one side when i slam the brakes, but i wouldn't say it's scary. As you're braking is the abs kicking in as you brake? Should the VSA do something here to help keep the car straight?
I don't know, it sounds weird.