Hey guys long time no see..

I have had a shaking problem in my neon for quite a while now, still trying to figure out what it is. The other day I got home after driving for 3-4 miles, and my front drivers side rim was very hot to the touch. I was assuming I had a brake sticking or something. So today I planned on getting a new brake caliper, except I drove about 12 miles, and both rims were same temp..slightly warm.

I remember when I put the brakes on, both sides of caliperswould not compress in like normal to fit on new pads.I first tried opening the bleeder screw and boy are those a joke. No way I was gonna get it loose without breaking it off. So instead I loosened the bolt that goes thru the end of the line, and I was able to push the calipers in. I called it good, because I had just bought a caliper from junkyard, and it would not push in, just like the last one..><

When I hit my brakes, the car does pull to the right some. Makes no sense cause the tire that was hot was on the drivers side.

Soo, my questions are....can the brake lines, or something else be causing my caliper to not push in properly?..or in this case..at all, untill I break loose the bolt holding line to caliper.
Is there anything else that could be causing the probs Im having..like a cv joint..?
The shake does not occur all the time, but most the time on takeoff it does shake. Also sometimes I can feel something really bogging the car down on takeoff... I would like to just buy a new caliper and be done with it, but due to the intermediant shake/no shake, Im kinda lost as to what's wrong. My other thoughts were that my clutch is starting to wear out...I hope not..
Thanks for any advice....

 

I can tell you its probably not your clutch wearing out. The clutch will slip if this happens and you'll see a rise in rpms. As for the brakes, anytime you mess with putting on new pads/ect. you should always bleed the system. there could lie your problem.

 

Well, I think it may be more than my brakes, but I'm not sure. Im starting to think it might be a tranny problem. yesterday I was on the freeway, with 40mph winds, rain, and I was doing around 65mph, and my car was shaking to high heaven. It was struggling baad to maintain speed. I thought it was gonna break something If I got on it anymore.

The brakes work fine most the time, but I definetly notice something bogging down the car heavily. I slowed down to look at another neon on the side of road for sale, and when I go to take back off, it's like something is binded up, and really slowing me down.When I roll to a corner to stop sometimes, I dont even need to hit the brakes, whatever is binding, slows me to a complete stop on its own....I gotta figure this out!!!

How am I supposed to bleed the brakes with the tiny little bleeder screw that will break off If I try to turn it? A bigger bleeder screw would be a great invention....

 

Also, is there anything I can do to make the page load faster, It just took me almost 10 minutes to get to main page, login, then get here...this site is not 56k friendly..at all!

 

you have to use the bleeder screw when you bleed the brakes. there is no other way, if you break em buy new ones.

these guys sell nice ones http://www.speedbleeder.com/

how do you know it will break if you never tryed it?

 

if it was me i would get new pads rotors and calipers and call it done.

 

I did get new pads, rotors, and a caliper for the side I thought was bad..after all that they still hang sometimes...I think it will break off, because I have broke off many in the past on other cars. Also If I break it, it's not as easy as just buying new ones. I would have to drill/tap out the hole again and waistless countless hours on a simple bleeder bolt, been there, done that..trying to avoid it.It could be what my whole problem is though..so I will try and get the bleeder screw loose. I also noticed my brake fluid is dark in color, so Im sure I should put new fluid in also. Thanks for the replies, I will let you know how it went, probably tommorow, when I got the whole day to spend on it.

 

you should always replace brakes as a pair. so replace the other side too and you wont have to worry about the bleeder screw.

did you try some penetrating oil on the stuck screw?

if your brake fluid is dark, then that could be half your problem. it is contaminated.