Omega Owners Forum

Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: 10mpg on 20 January 2009, 20:02:06

Title: Brake problems and a bad rattle!
Post by: 10mpg on 20 January 2009, 20:02:06

I have a 2.5 V6 tourer in manual flavor...

It has recently developed a hard pull to the right under braking, so bad that unchecked it would change lanes on the motorway, I had a good look around the suspension and everything seems in reasonable order the brakes seem to bite evenly and progressively (in the workshop with the front end off the ground) and if you really floor the brake (hard enough to engage the abs) it stops in a straight(ish) line..

Any ideas what could be causing this?

Also the engine has what I thought was a dodgy tappet/lifter but what now sounds to me like a big end rattle? is there anything else that could cause a constant tapping that is common to these cars..?

As another poiunt the handbrake is very poor I have found via searching on this forum how to best adjust it but i just mention it in case there is some problem that could contribute to the braking problem..

thanks all! :)

Title: Re: Brake problems and a bad rattle!
Post by: Entwood on 20 January 2009, 20:06:39

If it pulls under gentle braking, but is ok under very hard braking it could be a sticking caliper, so the loose one works pretty well but the sticky one needs greater force.

As the front brakes are so easy to take apart I'd be stripping the pads out, checking the amount of meat left on them, cleaning everything up and using a very small amount of copper grease on the "lugs", then reassembling and seeing if it any better. Obviously if the pads are badly worn this is a good time to replace them anyway ....

about 30 mins a side last time I did mine .. and that includes jacking/wheel removal .. :)

Title: Re: Brake problems and a bad rattle!
Post by: rob in gib on 20 January 2009, 22:50:07

it also has to be worth checking the front wheel bearings as slight play pushes the pads back in the caliper causing uneven light braking hope this helps    :y :y

Title: Re: Brake problems and a bad rattle!
Post by: hotel21 on 20 January 2009, 22:52:34

Good point about the wheel bearing but I would clean and free off the calipers in the first instance and see what happens...

Title: Re: Brake problems and a bad rattle!
Post by: dbug on 21 January 2009, 08:58:25

Check for sticky calliper - check also that slides are free, if not clean and grease.

Title: Re: Brake problems and a bad rattle!
Post by: 10mpg on 21 January 2009, 09:46:29

There's no play in any bearings they are toight, yes toight like a toiger...

also the symptoms are so bad I doubt it could be caused by something like that..

the wishbone bushes look ok the ball joints seem toight aswell..

I'll have the calipers apart at some point they look in fairly good order but a strip and clean cant hurt!


If the rattly engine is the big ends, where's the best place to get new bearings?

thanks all ed