Only one wheel locked???

[POS Racing]

For those of you who went to the PCA event on Saturday you may have noted the POS with the driver’s side front wheel locked! It wanted to lock up just that wheel all day! It is something I have noted before in the car, but my instructor showed me how to actually use my brakes at the school!(Thanks Jon!) I now have a square Azenis on the driver’s side front wheel.

The pads are new, and I the rotors are in good shape, no big gouges or anything that screams out the answer to this question.

So why does the POS like to lock up just the Drivers Front?

Side Note : I'm taking my spare set of Front Calipers (Thanks Adam ) to work tomorrow to give them a good cleaning and I'm going to give them a complete rebuild with all new Mazda bits!

[sammm]

Frozen caliper piston? Are the brake pads wearing evenly between the 2 front brakes?

[onething]

Here's a first- I learned something on the radio on the way to the Metromess Friday night that might answer this.

Are the pads on the left front wearing evenly? According to what I remember, if the inside is wearing more, it is the piston; outside means the assembly is not floating on the pins...

Back to NORMAL mode(i.e.: onething SWAG)
Is there a possibility the right front is not getting enough pressure? Plugged line or such?

[altiain]

I noticed you locking the front left up coming into the skidpad from where we were standing at corner 4. One thing to remember is that if you're trailbraking down into a lefthand corner, the inside front tire is the most lightly loaded front tire, and it will lock first. Most of the braking zones on Saturday's course were prior to lefthand turns (skidpad entry, slalom entry, pivot cone, Chicago box) - is the POS Racer locking the same wheel on righthand turns? Because if it isn't, then all you're doing is just slightly overbraking - you've got the straightline braking threshold down, you just need to adjust your input for trailbraking down into corners where one front wheel is loaded more than the other.

Iain

[POS Racing]

One thing to remember is that if you're trailbraking down into a lefthand corner, the inside front tire is the most lightly loaded front tire, and it will lock first.

Good Point Altiain! Just like this example from last season???
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[altiain]

Exactly like that example from last season.

Unless your car is smoking the left tire first in straightline braking or right turns, I'd be inclined to believe that the problem lies more with the driver than the equipment.

Iain

[POS Racing]

Unless your car is smoking the left tire first in straightline braking or right turns, I'd be inclined to believe that the problem lies more with the driver than the equipment.

Iain

That just can't be!!!! It has to be the car!!!!

[POS Racing]

So would a new & larger front sway bar help on my threshold trailbraking? The car should be flatter right??

Sammm has used peer pressure to force me into the purchase of new & larger front sway bar for the POS Racer.

[sammm]

Sammm has used peer pressure to force me into the purchase of new & larger front sway bar for the POS Racer.

bwahahaha

http://www.getfaster.com/

[tailchaser]

So would a new & larger front sway bar help on my threshold trailbraking? The car should be flatter right??

Only while threshold braking in a corner... The larger swaybar keeps more weight on the inside wheel.

[POS Racing]

So would a new & larger front sway bar help on my threshold trailbraking? The car should be flatter right??

Only while threshold braking in a corner... The larger swaybar keeps more weight on the inside wheel.

As they say in the Dodge commercials.......... SKweet!

[Miatamaniac92]

A larger front sway bar will also help with exit power on appilcation when you increase the power.

Chris

[altiain]

So would a new & larger front sway bar help on my threshold trailbraking? The car should be flatter right??

Only while threshold braking in a corner... The larger swaybar keeps more weight on the inside wheel.

Umm, actually that's not true. If anything, a larger front swaybar might actually induce more threshold braking problems for Mick, since the inside front wheel will be even more lightly loaded with a big front bar.

Example: At the next event, watch a well sorted fwd SP, ST, or SM car in tight corners. Notice how it usually lifts the inside rear wheel? One of the reasons it does that is because it's running a very stiff rear swaybar to help aid in rotation.

A stiffer sway bar actually decreases the ability of the two wheels on that axle to act independently. In other words, when the outer, heavily loaded front wheel compresses during cornering and braking manuvers, the inside front wheel is also being forced to compress by the linkage with the outside wheel through the sway bar. The stiffer the bar, the more the inside wheel is forced to compress. The more it's forced to compress, the less heavily loaded it is. The less havily loaded it is, the lower the coefficient of friction between the tire and the surface becomes, and the lower that coefficient becomes, the higher the likelihood of differential brake lockup.

Iain

[onething]

Dang!!! He oughta be teachin that stuff!!!