Rear Brake Imbalance

[Amila G]

Hi,

I took my car (CE110) to a mechanic to adjust the rear brakes as one wheel was locking up under heavy braking. One guy adjusted the brakes the other week and it felt like the left rear wheel had too much braking power.

But today, the mech (not the first one) lifted the rear started the engine, pushed the brake pedal and then tired to rotated the rear wheels and actually he could rotate the left wheel where as he could not move the right wheel.

So the conclusion was there's a brake imbalance on my car (CE110) and they said they wanted to fully analyze the braking system to find the issue. They did not tell me a possible cause but I overheard they are talking about a possible failure of a compensation valve. But when I asked what they told was that they cannot tell anything without fully (possibly dismantling) analysis.

Anyway I did not let them proceed as I was in a hurry and didn't know much about the place.

So I need a second opinion from you experts.

Btw rear brake liners, washers and fluid was changed about 8 moths ago and there were no leaks in wheel cyliders.

Also the place is called grand auto tech and is near the Kahathudawa entrance of the E01. Does anyone know if its a good place ?

Edited January 10, 2012 by Amila G

[Mani]

I'm not an expert on the subject but the valve they are talking about is the proportioning valve which limit the amount of fluid sent to the rear of the vehicle.

The confusing part is why only one wheel is affected. Generally, the prop. valve does not differentiate between the two rear wheels. It'll send the same pressure to both.

One possible issue could be that there are some foreign materials in the line going to the left side brake.

When you say the rear fluid was changed, did you actually bleed the system? Your rear left brake cylinder is the one that is farthest from the master cylinder so that is the wheel one should start with when bleeding the system then followed by the right rear, left front, right front.

Your mechanic is right in saying that they will have to analyze the entire system as it could be any number of things that can cause this.

Besides the above, your wheel cylinders may need to be checked for proper operation, lines need to be inspected, master cylinder need to be inspected etc...

I think it is well worth the money to have the whole system checked by a qualified technician to make sure that you identify the root cause of this issue. Definitely don't drive the car until you get this rectified. Imbalanced brakes can cause all sort of trouble up to and including total loss of control during hard braking.

[terrabytetango]

Getting this sorted out on our townace was a nightmare. I hope you have better luck.

[Sylvi]

Hi,

I took my car (CE110) to a mechanic to adjust the rear brakes as one wheel was locking up under heavy braking. One guy adjusted the brakes the other week and it felt like the left rear wheel had too much braking power.

But today, the mech (not the first one) lifted the rear started the engine, pushed the brake pedal and then tired to rotated the rear wheels and actually he could rotate the left wheel where as he could not move the right wheel.

So the conclusion was there's a brake imbalance on my car (CE110) and they said they wanted to fully analyze the braking system to find the issue. They did not tell me a possible cause but I overheard they are talking about a possible failure of a compensation valve. But when I asked what they told was that they cannot tell anything without fully (possibly dismantling) analysis.

Anyway I did not let them proceed as I was in a hurry and didn't know much about the place.

So I need a second opinion from you experts.

Btw rear brake liners, washers and fluid was changed about 8 moths ago and there were no leaks in wheel cyliders.

Also the place is called grand auto tech and is near the Kahathudawa entrance of the E01. Does anyone know if its a good place ?

'Amila G',

Mani on his post have given you very valuable good advice.

Get a good mechanic to check entire brake system by cleaning the entire system with air pressure removing all nipples then change new oil.

If you think your master cylinder is OK do not remove that only do the wheel cylinders.

But you have to remove all pipes from the master cylinder and do the clean up.

Sylvi Wijesinghe.