ok...spent some quality time with my brakes last couple days.
while I was picking up drums and shoes, I got an amazing labour deal from service manager at dealership to change rear drums and shoes...$60!! That was the morning after the snow in Toronto...not one customer at the shop in the morning! So, there are no probs there.
Since I knew the rear drums and shoes needed to be changed, I was hoping that would solve the problem, but I was not so lucky.
So, I removed each front caliper and cleaned lubed slide pins. There is no leakage at all. The only sign of any problem was the inboard pad on drivers side was a bit glazed (which I removed). Rotors looked OK and there was not any play in the bearings. I reassembled and tested...but still have the problem.
I inspected the piston seal and they were in fine condition. There was not any corrosion under the boot. I did not disassemble the piston as they are OEM and 1 year old. I figure that they should be fine for years.
After some driving and careful attention to the problem, here is a better description of what I am experiencing.
When driving, the car is pulling left and needs 1/16 turn to right to correct. When braking, the car will pull right while I am holding wheel steady, so I then need to correct back 1/16 turn (which is what the wheel should be at normally). If I let the wheel do what it wants when I brake, it turns to left 1/16 turn when I apply brakes.
Here are my questions: how much force is required to push a piston back in? Can do by hand or is a clamp needed for sure? I used channel locks to push them in. I observed that they pushed out easily when I reassembled and tried brakes.
If it is not pistons, then what else could do this?
