Lurching when braking hard
 

I was going down the road tonight, probably a little faster than i should have been. Straight smooth road, dry conditions.

some blue haired old lady in a tempo pulls out in front of me.

I had to jam the brakes hard. While doing so, the wheel jumped to the right in my hands. I could feel the car lurch that direction too. It felt a lot like the torque steer my accord suffered from except I was braking. This has happened several times when I have had to get into the brakes hard.

I also noticed that my front right wheel always has more brake dust on it that the right. Like twice as much.

Is it normal for one brake to grab a little harder from side to side? I know the front is going to grab harder than the back.

Just wondering if this is normal or if i need to take it in.

thanks!

greese

it happens to me when u brake hard always to the right we talked about it in the canada forum already dealer said it was normal

Yeah, do a search of the forum for "tram-lining". There are some pretty good anwers from people on this. It's normal

I have never had that happen. I would be hard-pressed to believe that any braking situation which takes the vehicle off-line in an unexpected fashion would be "normal". I have slammed my brakes fron 120 to 40 mph several times and not once has the car pulled in any direction. Possible causes; bad pads. Do they, or have they, ever made noise in the past? Also look at the surface of the rotors. Are they similar in appearance?

Charles

Charles

I forgot one other thing. Previous posts have mentioned wheel alignment problems from the factory. I complained about tire noise and my dealer re-aligned all four wheels. The handling did improve somewhat. If your toe-in is not set right it could cause the problems you mentioned.

C

Re: Lurching when braking hard
 

Did you mean right rear? Then yes, the front pads are larger, worker harder, and you'll see more dust on the front wheels.

Also, check out this thread .

rx8cited

rx8cited:
right front always has more dust than the left front. My rear brakes rarely have any brake dust on them

Charles R Hill:
my brakes squeal all the time under light braking. I stop short every now and then and it seems to have improved.

I will search for tram-lining. Thanks!

Also check your tire pressures. If one wheel is significantly different than the others you will end up with some tracking problems.

What was the road condition in that you were on? Level? Ruts in the road?

level and smooth. It was new pavement. Asphalt to be exact. Still dark black. That is why I am not sold it was just tramlining.

Well, contrary to Mr Hill's opinion, this is a fairly noted effect of the RE040 tires. Now it could be that he and you don't have the RE040s and have the Dunlops instead, which might not have this problem, however for the first 7,500 miles or so of my RE040's, they did this pretty frequently. If it's the brakes, then you will be able to reproduce the effect at will on any road, and the car will always go to the same side in the same proportion. Tram-lining will cause the car to go to either side in varying amounts depending on how the car catches the road. I reiterate that this is normal. I'm not saying that it is good or desirable, but many RX 8s with RE040s have mentioned this tendancy. All the best.