Car swerving when heavy breaking..

[Georgie]

this has happened several times today where i have been doing a little more than the recomended road limit and because of people not looking where they are going have needed to drop 50mph+ in one go.
when i have put my foot down the car will swerve heavly from one side to another, i havent noticed this before like this and am fairly convinced it isnt normal.

any ideas.

 

[cordobabrendy]

brake pads are unevenly worn or else you have air in your braking system. time to get them bled and checked i reckon.

 

[Georgie]

i had the car serviced 2 weeks ago for is 30K service, a friend drove my car and said they were too soft.. so had them bled, made a wee bit of difference but not much.

when it was serviced they said breaks were 50% worn and would need changind at next service.. but i do plan on having them upgraded by then so left it.

just a little un nerving when i know i may need to stop very quickly to avoid a accident and then the stopping its is gona cause another one as i plow in to the side of another car!

 

[Kam]

Tyre pressures are OK?

 

[Georgie]

yup, car felt a little heavy to i checked that and they are al good.

 

[cstevens]

I am having this same problem at the moment, Leon FR 8000 miles. Car is going in for some niggles, rough sounding and speaking brakes being one of them.

Normal braking feels find, however say 80mph heavy braking and I am swerving, I check my tyres very regulary and they are fine, I put it down to high winds on one occasion, but have experinced it about 6 times now.

Its defnitely not trammlining either, have had this a lot in the Celica and MR2, this is not pulling to one side, its swerving both ways.

 

[edc]

Check your dampers

 

[Si]

Since the track day? My brakes went down alot on that track day!.

Plus you may have boiled the brakes alittle on the day so that may cause air in the system again.

 

[Georgie]

i am presuming since track day since i never noticed it before, but say i am doing 80 and i drop to 40 cause some plonker puts a speed camera on the road i will have issues.

but normal breaking is fine.

 

[F2 Stu]

It could be a sticking caliper throwing it off balance, I had this happen with my Ibiza and it would pitch the car the same direction at speed.

Is this one of the things you picked up from the trackday?

Edit: are your Koni dampers adjustble?

 

[Georgie]

ah i the konis are still sitting in the boot waiting to be fitted!

 

[aphix]

could you have a slightly warped disc?

Or a faulty ABS sensor?

Rob

 

[F2 Stu]

No good in a box are they?

It's likely to be one of 3 things - Tyres, Brakes & Shocks

If its not resolved by monday, I can perhaps take look & see what I can make of it?

 

[Vicky M]

maybe it's because SEAT brakes are **** !!!!!!!!!

sorry, they're ok when you stand on the pedal, but they're so spongy, and only work after a lot of pedal travel?

Compared to the Pug brakes, they're awful. But then, i've got ABS,EBD,and EBA.
all i have to do is put the weight of my foot on the pedal, and the car stops by itself. If i stand on the pedal, IT HURTS. Highway code states that braking from 60mph takes 240ft. i can stop from 60mph in less than 100ft

 

[traumapat]

is it swerving from left to right consistantly? id have thought if it was a caliper issue or shock or tyre it would go always to the same side ( where the faulty bit was) ?

if its almost equally left to right then could the abs sensor be playing up as already said?

id get a garage to check it. bad brakes = broken car

 

[Si]

maybe it's because SEAT brakes are **** !!!!!!!!!

sorry, they're ok when you stand on the pedal, but they're so spongy, and only work after a lot of pedal travel?

Compared to the Pug brakes, they're awful. But then, i've got ABS,EBD,and EBA.
all i have to do is put the weight of my foot on the pedal, and the car stops by itself. If i stand on the pedal, IT HURTS. Highway code states that braking from 60mph takes 240ft. i can stop from 60mph in less than 100ft

Brembos are fine

hehe



Sorry!

 

[Georgie]

wont be resolved by monday as every where is now closed.

car was serviced 2 weeks ago now, and when a friend drove it he said that the breaks felt too soft. coudl get the pedal to the floor easly, took it to wheelbase in hersham and they bled them suspecting air in the brakes. made a little bit of a diference. took the car to camberly seat and they checked it over telling me it was fine and there was no problem, have it in writing. when it was at wheelbase they said they recon its a internal leak in the ABS thing as they had had 3 cars recently all VAG all with the same problems and the result was they all had a internal leak in the ABS sensor.

given that i have done a track day since my service and i am sure there was some element of cooking going on there was a existing problem before hand and now its worse. its fine under normal breaking, but if there comes a time where i may need to use them, and use them well i dont want to have to worry about avoiding the twat infront of me or to the side of me and then scaring my self sh!tless as i also have to contend with the car swerving.

 

[Reg]

maybe it's because SEAT brakes are **** !!!!!!!!!

sorry, they're ok when you stand on the pedal, but they're so spongy, and only work after a lot of pedal travel?

Compared to the Pug brakes, they're awful. But then, i've got ABS,EBD,and EBA.
all i have to do is put the weight of my foot on the pedal, and the car stops by itself. If i stand on the pedal, IT HURTS. Highway code states that braking from 60mph takes 240ft. i can stop from 60mph in less than 100ft

Sorry, but I don't agree with you there. Just because you can touch the pedal lightly and stop dead does not make them 'good brakes'. They are just totally over-servoed, meaning the pressure you place on the pedal is magnified many times at the caliper.

Driving a car without servo assisted brakes is so refreshing. You can actually feel what the car is doing, rather than the numb feeling in 99% of modern cars where you smash your face on the steering wheel should you dab the middle pedal a little hard.

Good brakes should be measured by stopping distance, feel and lack of fade after repeated heavy duty stops. My old Mk1 Golf was said to have '****' brakes by people who drove it for the first time. But it wasn't a lack of brakes - that car could stop straight and true very quickly, and with decent pads and fluid resisted fade even on track but the pedal needed more pressure than they were used to. It could easily lock the front wheels at any speed, so therefore didn't need to clamp the pads onto the disks any harder.