Hello all.

So I have this FR-V that's causing me headache for a while. It's a 2008 2.2 diesel with 6speed manual gearbox, just over 123k miles.

Bought it with few issues that I thought will be easy to fix, but stuck at the moment..

The main issue is that the car is pulling to the left. The odd thing about it is that the pull is not consistent. I.e. in the morning, when you set off there's no noticeable pull, while couple roundabouts later, you really need to hold the steering wheel! Also the steering wheel seems to be easier to turn to left rather than right.

Car recently had both front wheel bearings done, new track rod ends, second hand shocks (as I thought mine could be bent, but no effect after the change). The ball joints were showing no play (although quite old), suspension arm bushes do have some tears but far from loose.

I fitted new brake discs and pads all round. Calipers looked like they been refurbished or such kit fitted not long time ago (this was probably a year ago).

After fitting the brakes, I went for a short 40mile trip and after stopping at services I noticed brakes smelling. Rear ones were binding.

I started taking things apart and found that the tricky part is that the caliper is fairly easy to compress back in, but once fitted to the car and brakes applied, they seem to stick.

I managed to get all four calipers from another car and swapped only the rear carriers (because mine looked like got too much play).

I just had 4 wheel alignment done and the car is still pulling to the left.

May worth to note that I do have ABS VSA lights on (normally comes on when brakes applied heavily) due ABS block pressure sensor issue. I had replacement fitted but same issue appears to happen.

Now I am running out of ideas, I spoke with the guy who did the alignment, he didn't see anything odd (or obvious) so suggests it may be brakes issue.

I put the car up on jacks today, started the engine, spun all wheels and they seemed to be free enough, front is a little bit less easy (probably due transmission) but nothing odd. I then applied brakes and tried spinning wheels again and noticed all wheels, particularly front ones are a lot harder to spin and when you let go only does 1 maybe 1.5 turns.

Can this be because of faulty ABS block? I am reluctant to waste money on another second hand ABS unit as the one I purchased was repaired already and supposedly worked fine.

Any ideas welcome...

 

My thoughts were that the control arm bushings are torn up

 

I can take a picture of what they look like but I have seen a lot worse in the past..

 

Here's the image of the bush. They both look very similar on both sides. Bush itself is still attached to it's outer ring so not moving up and down too freely..

 

IDK. Only guessing.
But, it seems you have done most of the regular checks?
May be replacing the control arms will stop the drift??
Anyway, good luck finding the problem
Please come back and let us know what it was, thanks

 

replaced the arms and ball joints, still the same..

 

Have you done anything to the rack and pinion?

 

no not yet. I now changed brake calipers but still no change. I am now thinking it might be the steering column..

 

anti skid unit ?

 

Did you jack the car up and see if the wheels are still free to spin after you encounter the steering issue?
Spins freely in the morning then have to put strong hold on it??
Could it be wheel bearings locking up??