Brakes

I always had pretty good luck with the brakes on Pandora. At least I thought I did. Even after sitting all this time, the brake pedal is up high and doesn’t feel spongy at all. But during my test drives, I’ve noticed that it pulls pretty hard to the left when braking. I was hoping dead spiders were gumming something up.

When I pulled the passenger side caliper, it looked ok, but I couldn’t get it to retract at all. Even with the pads out and standing on the brake pedal, it wouldn’t move. Fine – these types were known for rusting and seizing and I figured I was lucky it lasted as long as it did. I pulled the driver’s side to see how it looked and noticed the pads were significantly more worn that the passenger side. That part makes sense. What doesn’t is that I apparently drove the car around like this for quite some time, based on that wear. I have no recollection of this car pulling at all during stops. Then again, I don’t remember a lot of stuff. I have never let brake problems go for too long, though. Weird.

New calipers, pads, and brake hose arrived Saturday morning. I set up rags and a drip pan underneath everything to catch the brake fluid that would pour out, as well as a golf tee in close reach to plug up the hose while I got the new caliper ready. It took me a moment to realize the only fluid spilling was coming from the caliper itself – nothing from the line. Once again, standing on the brake pedal did nothing. Blah, the line was clogged up. I tested the caliper again and it is still nice and frozen, though. At least I didn’t waste money on a new one.

So now a new hard line from NPD is on its way.