Well, I've had my xB for about a year now and noticed that under braking the car will jerk hard to the right until I stopped. Then when I began to acceleate away it would continue to pull hard. This does not happen all the time, but it happens far more than it should. It didn't do it to bad at first but then I bought my rims and tires it got pretty bad. I took it to toyota and they said to align it so I spent $100 to align it and that didn't fix it. I took it back down and they drove it and then said that it was the right front tire. The conicity of the tire was bad. The band inside the tire had shifted. So I went to discount tire where I bought the tires and rims(with warrenty) and had them look at it. They said the tire is fine and toyota is giving me crap. They rotated the tires and balanced them and it still pulls to the right. They ordered a new tire anyway. Some of my friends and family have told me its my brakes but Toyota said the brakes are fine.

Any suggestions? I think Toyota is just not wanting to deal with it. If it was the tie it would pull a different direction once the rotated my tires.

 

If it's an option, take it to another dealer. If that isn't an option you could always file a complaint with Scion. Good luck.

 

is it like the tires grab really good to one side but then it feels normal after that. mine does that only when accelerate and not that often. i dont think anything is wrong.

 

yes they grab to one side but they do it hard enough to werve my car into the next lane. I am planning on taking it to another dealership. there are liike 4 of them I can take it to. We'll see what happens

 

Sticky caliper. I would check the rotor and caliper on that side to see what the deal is. Have you had your brakes changed yet?

If you pull off the wheel on that side the rotor can tell you a lot. I can tell you that on my first car i stepped hard on the brakes once and from that point on it would pull hard to the right. Turns out the caliper was bad. No big deal to replace.

 

I only have 12K on the car. shouldn't that be covered under warrenty? or do I need to replace them. I bought the extended care warrenty through toyota

 

^^^ moving parts are not covered under warrenty. Brakes, wipers and maybe even belts are not covered as they wear under normal conditions.

Its easy enough to check. Just pop off a wheel and look inside the caliper to see how much pad is left on the steel plate.

 

If the rotor is sticking.. wouldnt that be covered under warranty? sounds like a faulty part to me.

 

IT does sound like a faulty caliper. It might be grabbing too hard causing you to pull to one side when braking and then not letting the rotor go when you release the brakes and accelerate.

A faulty caliper is tricky because of the intermitten problem. Doesn't stick all the time and the dealer might not experience the problem when diagnosing it so they are blaming other things.

 

Thanks guys, I was going to look at it today but it's pouring rain so its going to wait till tomarrow.

 

It may or may not. If its up to the dealer, and he didnt get laid the night before then chances are slim. The more milage that is on the car the less likelyhood that the rotor or the caliper would be replaced. It is worth a shot.

If you do have to get a new caliper check your local parts supplier if they have any after market ones. If not, then you can either try a local junk yard or as a last resort try your dealership. Of course the dealership is going to cost you the most. Installation isnt that hard. Neither is bleeding the brakes.

 

ok, if it turns out to be the caliper then the new one's getting painted!

 

I wouldnt do that if your dealer is giving you crap already, its just more of a reason to deny a future warranty claim on the same part should the need arise.

 

Check your suspension, maybe the control arm, or something in that area. Could also be the brake caliper, such as stated above.

 

Sticky caliper or could be a strut not installed correctly. I had a strut cause problems on another car and the only way it was found was by doing a 4 wheel alignment with a computer setup. The dealer couldn't do it so off to Goodyear I went.

 

I agree that you should check the wear on the brake pads. Sounds like a sticky caliper.

I asked my husband, who works for Goodyear, about the tire. He said that if the tire was bad that DT would not have been able to get it balanced. Save the cash....don't replace the tire.

 

What he said. The brake pads are wear items as well as the rotor so they are not covered by the warranty. However, the calipers are. If they are malfunctioning and cause the pads/rotor to wear out prematurely then they should be covered by the warranty.

 

The shoes aren't covered, but the caliper definitely should be.

Yeh, sure, it's a wearing part, like the ring gear, the pistons, etc- and should definitely last a lot longer than 12K miles. Calipers should give zero problems well through the normal 35K warranty period...

Definitely seems like a sticky caliper...