[Corsa D 2006-2014] Weird braking behaviour

[Lizard_Of_Bodom]

Hello All!

Decided to register and ask for support as I cant seem to be able to find solution to my problem.
I have Corsa D 2007 1.2, ever since it was bought (year ago) it behaves erratically when braking. Any time I step on the brake pedal, car leans towards the right side (like its drifting towards the middle of the road) but immediately straighten itself up. It is repetitive and occurs in all speeds. What worries me, on lower speeds, when hitting heavily on brake, I can actually feel&hear one of the rear wheels locking. Heavy and very short brakings even results with car leaning down on front-left shock like during heavy right hand
turns.
Problem only occurs during foot pedal braking. Pulling the handbrake during driving results in even braking.

I figured so far, that the problem is most likely caused by rear brakes – the way car behaves makes me think its one of the rear wheels brakes too much/too less and affects balance.


What I did so far:
- Checked&cleaned brake drums
- Had brake fluid replaced and brakes bled
- Did wheel allgnment
- Switch wheels back->front , front->back, left->right

Shocks are ok, tyre pressure is ok, pedal is stiff, ABS does work
Car doesn’t have stability control

I am running out of ideas, what else can I check? The way it brakes now will one day end in spin-around on wet or icy surface…

Will appreciate any help ideas, thanks!

edit: forgot to mention, I obviously didnt exclude front brakes completely as the cause of the problem, but I did check front pads/discs and they are perfect and evenly worn.

[Taurus]

My first thought would be to check the front calipers are moving cleanly. If one is sticking you'll get those kind of issues. The other thing that can happen is for the flexi hoses to break up inside, so that they effectively become one way valves. That can cause a caliper to stick. It's the difference between the pads contacting that causes one wheel to brake sooner than the other, causing the imbalance in braking.

If you take it to a MOT place get them to put it on their test rollers they can check the braking performance of each wheel.

[Lizard_Of_Bodom]

Thanks for advices.
Will check the movement of front cals just to eliminate the possibility of that being a problem, but I still thing back wheels are the issue - I dont think its normal for any of rear wheels to actually squeek-jam when foot braking (and that clearly happens even on dry road) so looks like uneven brake balance from rear.
Problem is, I have the printout from the last diagnostic (few weeks before I got the car) and the imbalance is minimal. As I said, car "correct itself" half a second after brake is applied, but that half a second may actually be enough for it to start spinning.
When I tried the emergency stop from lets say 50 mph, after the initial jerk-movement car actually stopped in straight line.

That caliper/drum sticking idea of yours is worth exploring further, thanks.

[Taurus]

If your rear wheels are locking when braking then it will be a faulty brake shoe. It may have had aftermarket ones fitted, but even the original OEM brake linings caused problems on the early ones. They brought out a replacement, but iirc it didn't always solve the problem. I know you say they've been cleaned, but check them again and look for signs of snatching on the leading edge of the shoe lining. An old trick is to file a chamfer onto the leading and trailing edges of the brake shoes.

[Lizard_Of_Bodom]

ah, allright - will check them myself then and see whats going on.
Never did the drums before on that car, any issues I should be aware when opening them? (springy springs or something like that? :>). Downloaded repair manual but any personal feedback will be appreciated.
thanks

[santa]

Could be as simple as shoe adjustment inside the drums. Shoes are supposed to be self adjusting, but if left rear brake adjuster is sticky or not operating then that shoe will have further to travel than the right before contacting the drum - hence the slight delay in application of brake to left rear.

[Lizard_Of_Bodom]

thanks santa for the advice - will make sure I check it as well.
Planned myself weekend afternoon for disassembling drum and see what is going on.
I will also check front caliper on the same side - I am recieving mixed feedback from the car every day I drive it (normally its driven by my GF and I rarely drive more than few miles) and yesterday I noticed that on heavy breaking right front tyre squeek&block and the other one dont. Now, is that another issue or simply i mistakenly took it as rear wheels before - not sure yet. Something IS wrong on left side, thats for sure - whether front or back... :/

[Rocksta]

What tyres are your tyres like? What brands? Are they second hand part worn?

[warrensworld2]

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of this, I'm having the same issue.
Garage confused.

[darvi]

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of this, I'm having the same issue.
Garage confused.

We have got one too doing exactly the same, there is no pressure to the nearside front brake. We are thinking something inside the ABS pump no good?

[darvi]

We have got one too doing exactly the same, there is no pressure to the nearside front brake. We are thinking something inside the ABS pump no good?

If anyone has this issue, we have just replaced the ABS Control unit/modulator as the valve inside was faulty. This is a seperate problem to the official vauxhall recall on ABS issues.

[warrensworld2]

If anyone has this issue, we have just replaced the ABS Control unit/modulator as the valve inside was faulty. This is a seperate problem to the official vauxhall recall on ABS issues.

Sounds expensive, where is it located. Any pictures or links ?

[royalanhirst]

[royalanhirst]

The unit is behind the battery on the rhs of the engine compartment

[Bugman]

Just an observation on 'weird' brakes.I dont drive many different cars these days and tend to keep them longer.My 2007 Yaris (and previous abs cars) has simple ABS. When it activates you get pulsing through the pedal but thats about it. But my 2010 corsa has a more sophisticated system , with more channels and can do more stuff (with various 'initials') that balance brakes etc. It also quite sensitive .I am very gentle with braking but it sometimes activates unexpectedly on wet roads or with the tiniest amount of dust or gravel.And it may happen on good tarmac if you brake hard. If one wheel loses traction before the others it will 'do its stuff' and may feel a bit weird.
It was quite disconcerting the first time I experienced this. A whole lot more things seem to happen with brakes behaving independently, applying and releasing as required. Fairly subtle but I could feel it.And I admit I got the brakes checked out.

I dont want anyone to neglect brakes that dont feel right. Get them checked out. But if you are new to ABS,EBS,ESP's traction control and the various new gismos it is possible there may be nothing wrong.