Why does only one tire lock up?

[ntmatter]

As I was bedding in some new pads last night, I noticed that only the driver's side tire will skid. Plus, that one tire is extremely easy to lock up. Could this be an alignment or cornerweight problem, worn tire, or just normal behavior?

 

[Fast Viper Dan]

Andy, I had the same problem today. I think that is normal. When you install new pads on used rotors you have uneven contact. One pad in hitting a high spot on the rotor and it wants to all of the work. It can take a couple hundred miles of street driving to match up the surfaces. Or a few laps at the track. Just be careful to avoid hard unpredictable breaking and you will be fine.
Dan

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

GTS Dean had a good explanation - the driver is on the left; the battery is on the left; and the fronts will lock up first. With more weight on the left side, and more braking capacity in the front, the right front will always lock up first (and I have a few tires to prove it.) Finally I used a little Kentucky windage and cut the right rear spring perch about 0.035" to apply a little "wedge" and increase the weight on the right front. Think of what happens if the right rear tire goes flat- the car teeters on the RF and LR tire. It worked; I can equally flat spot either front, depending on which way I was leaning at the time.

I'm sure there are smarter racers that can actually calculate the corner weights between stock and this crossweight fix; if so, I'd like to know how close I got with my (un)educated guess.

 

[GTS Dean]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ntmatter:
I noticed that only the driver's side tire will skid. Plus, that one tire is extremely easy to lock up.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It is quite normal for the Right Front (passenger side) to lock first. You may have a sticky piston in one of the calipers.

 

[ntmatter]

I understand that it would be more typical to have the passenger's side lock up first, since the weight would be more to the left. However, in my case this is not happening. I can lock up the driver's side tire very easily at fairly low speeds - less than 50 mph. In addition, there seems to be more heat on that side of the car - the brake caliper lettering is noticably more yellow than on the passenger side, much of the caliper finish is scoured off from brake dust, and there is some probably unrelated engine heat issues on the driver side. So, would it be possible to have an alignment shop corner weigh the car, or get some spring settings that would possibly isolate this problem?

A

 

[Marv S]

Andy,

If it is locking up the drivers side front that easy I doubt it is an alignment or corner weight solution but more likely brake system like Dean mentioned

Was it like this at the track events you've been to? If not, when did it flare up and Was putting new front pads on the only change made?

 

[ntmatter]

No, it's been doing it for a while. My best guess would be from around the time I installed the Eibach springs. The car alignment is currently a bit off - the wheel is tilted a bit to the left - which is one of the reasons for tomorrow's alignment. Since this is a performance suspension shop that I'm going to, and since they are familiar with race cars, I'm hoping to either have them fix the problem, or else provide them with insights from this board so that we can get it isolated. My drivers side tire is pretty much ruined, and so I'll get it replaced on Friday by Bobby Archer at the track.

A