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MG MGF Technical - Pulling Brakes

This problem may already have been covered - apologies if it has!
1.8iVVC; 1800 miles; brakes pull - predominantly to the left, however sometimes to the right!
Appears no connection to speed, weight distribution, rate of braking, or time of day!
Dealer has to date "checked everything out, and it's all OK". Nothing has changed and I would like to be able to return to the dealer with some history.
Any help appreciated.

MGF4GDP
Graham Peel

Graham,
I had similar problems and decided to check pads and disks for wear. They were all under the limit so I changed the lot. The pads and disks seem to wear out at the same time. I used MG Metro disks and pads for the front at half the MGF price and used the 'proper' MGF ones on the back. This cured the pulling which felt quite dangerous at 70mph. The plungers in the calipers were quite grotty and may have been binding. I just cleaned them up when I replaced the disks and pads. Hope this helps!
Bruce Caldwell

Poor while alignment can cause pulling when braking. The tracking was completely crap on my new VVC. Have they checked this?
David Bainbridge

What am I on this morning? That should of course be 'wheel alignment'.

Regarding Bruce's idea, if your pads are worn out after 1800 miles then you've got a big problem!

Honest - get a retrack!
David Bainbridge

Also check your suspension height is the same on both sides. Mine "pulled" when one of the hydrogas units had leaked and let the side down...

Neil.
Neil

I had this problem and it seems to have gone but I changed a number of things

1 Wheel allignment (tracking go for parallel all round or Rob B's recommendation of 5 mins toe in all round)
2 New Brake pads and discs, I put new discs and green stuff pads on: unbeleivable difference.
3 ride height I suffered terribly from "bump steer" which was quite scary, so make sure the ride height isnt too low. if you want to go crazy you will have to get lower knuckles etc Rob has all the data you would need.

Hope this helps
whatever the situation, none of the above costs very much with the exception of going for a full house techspeed lowering/tracking session (600 but apparently worth it, I am tempted believe me and I am a tight wad!)
Dont put up with this problem though its not worth it you can easily make your F handle brilliantly, mines going pretty well at the mo!

N
A19NJW
Neil

The actual cause needs to be identified, or at least some of the most important parts eliminated from the 'suspect' list.

Check each front wheel off the ground to see if there is any binding present. This will cause the one disc and pad to run hot and so when the brakes are applied there will be immediate high perfromance response from the warm one and slow response from the other. The car will then pull to the side where the hot brake is. Taken beyond a gentle drag and move to a more significant bind and the brake temps on that side will get too hot and so when the brakes are aplied you get a fluctuating performance.

A common cause of binding pads is where the car is not subject to much heavy braking and the slider mechanism sticks. In a similar way when the pads wear the piston is protruding more and with lack of use can be more susceptable to sticking.

Lastly I have seen this with MG Maestro's, and remember they donated the front discs to the F, where the actual steel in the discs has a variable coeficient of friction over its' surface. The result is really weird variations in brake performance and the only cure is to renew discs and pads. However this is a problem seen on only two cars when new and the dealer couldn't accept the condition nor manage to cure the problem. I believe from people within Lucas Girling that it comes from a bad batch of steel used during manufacture.

Rog
Roger Parker

This thread was discussed between 04/06/2001 and 10/06/2001

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.