Brakes Pulling

[tonym]

Struggled with a leftward pull on braking and almost all brake related solutions pointed to right brake caliper. After pulling piston, cleaning everything and lubing seals with fluid and greasing stops, still had the problem. Noticed that the driver's side wheel was a little harder to spin so I pulled that caliper off and did the aforementioned conditioning to it and, lo and behold, problem solved. So it's not always the opposite caliper that be the culprit.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Glad you found the problem, and I'll just add that sometimes pulling to one side is caused by alignment, front suspension, or tire issues, rather than the brake calipers themselves.

-Bryan

[tonym]

Yes, neglected to say I checked all of those as well. Ran straight with toe in, caster and camber in spec, suspension was tight and tires are new, balanced and equal pressure. Calipers are original with new seals so not sure why they got sticky after a year of flawless performance. May need to eventually replace them but I'd like to keep stock parts as much as possible.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Fiats don't like to be ignored. Drive them daily, or you will be on the receiving end of wrath. I could make a comparison here, but I'll stop now before I get into trouble.

-Bryan

[DieselSpider]

When you do the brake fluid flush every 2 years regardless of the miles driven the caliper guides, wedges, etc need to be cleaned and lubricated with a good quality high temperature caliper grease. This is more critical on seldom driven cars since once this grease gets thin and starts to dry out they will start to bind and braking will be uneven. If this is allowed to slide you really need to do a thorough job of cleaning up the caliper guides, wedges, etc before applying the caliper grease to all the points that slide. Leave a little rust/corrosion behind or fail to apply an adequate amount of grease and you may have issues in very short time.

Also note that caliper service should always be done on the pair for that axle and not ever on just one side.

[tonym]

Thanks guys. They're greased up good now. And good call on the no comment Bryan.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

And good call on the no comment Bryan.

Heh, heh, heh...!!

-Bryan