hello all,

ive been having an issue with my 2009 rdx. it pulls to the right all of the time, and under braking most of the time it sort of surges, it does not seem like a warped rotor, there is no shake in the steering wheel at all, its the whole car sort of surges as you brake (best way i could describe it.) i read on the crv forums that the pulling is a common problem from castor being out of alignment, not sure if that would attribute to the surging feeling. any advice/experiences anybody can share is appreciated. thanks in advance!

 

yes, you need to get your car aligned if you havent.

and the surging sounds like a vacuum leak.

 

Vacume leak can cause a surge under braking?

 

when was the last time your throttle body has been looked at/cleaned?

 

Probably never. How would this impact braking?

 

the brakes are under a vacuum

 

I've been working on cars for probably 20 years, dealt with vacuum leaks, which typically effected how the car runs, never once braking. I will look into it though. Wouldn't a vacuum leak also effect the turbo system in the rdx?

 

at this point, without inspecting your vehicle physically...I'm only an armchair quarterback with a minor in car mechanics.
just a guess with the vacuum leak...but the brake booster is under a vacuum. a leak can cause surging. but who knows?

because that's what I Think of, when I hear the word surge.

 

I believe the brake booster is connected to the TB. Hence why I asked

 

Thanks guys, I will investigate this vacuum situation. Was reading on the crv's the shock tower will rotate causing the pull and castor to be out, I've never heard of this before, but wasn't sure if that would also cause a surge on braking.

 

^honda/acura's always always have had finicky alignments. it's a FWD based vehicle. EVERY little bump will take alignment out of spec......

I believe what you have are two separate incidences.....an alignment problem..... and a surge problem....
fix one, then move on to the next....


go get an alignment sir.

 

Will do, thanks!

 

also it's Caster not castor two different things!

 

If the brakes are stopped with no cool down after severe use some excess pad material can form on the rotor at that spot under the pad causing uneven pad material deposits.

Later after they have cooled, you apply the brakes and the spot with the pad material buildup has more friction and the brake grabs (pulses) each time that spot contacts the pad.

You can easily check if this is what's going on in your case as far as the surging problem goes:

As your speed drops while you brake to a stop, the surge feeling will happen less time per second and each pulse lasts a bit longer till it stops as the car stops. If so, you can try to remove the excess pad material with sandpaper. But the longer it baked on the harder it gets. Think cement.

Baer has all the info you need to make your brakes work perfect and last as long as possible in their tech info section. Technical Information - Baer Brakes

Another source of brake info...

Inspecting Brake Rotors



Key is to break-in your brakes. Even when you only replace the pads.