Re: Brake pedal weirdness after getting bearings changed

["Nathan" <etherwolf@sopris.net>]

So is there a potential that when they pressed the new bearings in that they did it wrong?

The only difference between your associate's situation and mine is my pedal is always really stiff,
as though there were like a rock under the pad or something, not like it's being set after the first
time.

# Nathan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Cripps" <mikecripps@mediaone.net>
To: <jettaglx@igtc.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 11:45 AM
Subject: Re: Brake pedal weirdness after getting bearings changed


I don't know if this applies to your situation, but...

An associate of mine had a terrible time getting his brakes to firm up.
The first stroke was always very mushy, then the rest (at one stop)
were rock solid. We went through his system with a fine tooth comb.
*Nothing* out of spec,  replaced rotors, pads, calipers, etc.  just
because
he was a perfectionist.

Turned out to be a bad wheel bearing. The bearing allowed (caused?)
the rotor to wobble slightly, pushing the pads further apart.
The first brake application would push them back in close and
"unwobble" the rotor. The second stroke was as normal because
the pads had been reset to normal clearance from the rotor.

This drove four mechanical techs nuts until we found the bearing
by sheer chance. It wasn't even that bad - just some extra play.
If one guy hadn't pulled on the tire/wheel without removing the
nuts, it might still be a mystery.



>I'm having a really hard time rationalizing this one, and the very
>competent mechanic who did the
>job is a bit baffled as well. Hopefully one of you can shed some light on
>what causes this.
>
>I just got both my front bearings replaced. The car runs absolutely dreamy
>now; the alignment is
>perfect, the noise is finally gone... but the brakes are much stiffer now.
>How in the hell, I don't
>know, I would think if anything they'd be a little looser. By stiffer, I
>mean I used to have a
>really nice, easy feel of increasing pressure pretty uniformly down to
>maybe 3/4 of the way to the
>floor, at which point you just can't push it any further and the car has
>thrown you into the
>steering wheel :-)
>
>Now, I can't get it more than 1/4 the way to the floor before it's rock
>solid won't budge any
>further. I talked to the mechanic and he doesn't understand how it could
>be that way, that he didn't
>adjust the braking system at all, but he did have to pull the calipers off
>the rotor. He said he was
>quite careful getting it back together and that nothing he did should have
>caused the pedal to
>respond in this fashion.
>
>Any ideas on what happened? I really liked the feel of the brakes before
>he did this, and I'm kinda
>worried about it, even though the brakes in a technical sense work great
>still... My only thought
>was that maybe he tightened the two hex-head bolts too much? Could this
>possibly affect things that
>dramatically?
>
>Thanks in advance!!!
>
># Nathan
>1996 Jetta GLX