IS300 Sticky brake calipers?
 

I'm starting to notice that my car is pulling to the right from time to time. It happens quite sporadically and wouldn't matter if the car was at running temp or cold. The problem would appear or worsen while driving on bumpier roads such as some parts of Kingsway or in Gastown or even through an intersection. The steering wheel would also tug noticeably to the right under braking as well.

Sticky caliper or could it be something else?

I don't think it's necessarily a sticky brake caliper although I would not rule that out. Based on the symptoms you described, it sounds more like you have some tired suspension items, be it tie rods, control arm bushings, ball joints and what have you. My suggestion is to have it checked out, perform the necessary repairs and have the car re-aligned. You won't be able to tell without getting underneath to check things out. Good luck.

is your car lowered? it could be "bump steer" which is perfectly normal if it is lowered.

It would be easy to rule out sticky brake caliper by jacking up your cars front and see if your front wheels spin freely?

hey johnny...

that car had a full caliper service when the brakes were done, which wasn't long ago... if you'd like, i can check your calipers by retracting them and re-servicing them to re-assure you that the brakes are fine...

if it's an alignment issue, i suggest you take it to pacific alignment and frame on clark drive, near your work... they're really good and recently aligned my IS300 after i put konis into it... they can tell you if anything suspension related is worn/damaged etc...

Not lowered. That may or may not work, as it isn't constantly sticking.

I do see quite a few search results relating to this matter though. I guess its not so uncommon.

Yeah, i remembered that. That's why I thought it was odd. I'll have it brought in sometime as I need a set of new tires anyways. Thanks for the recommendation. I suspect that it could possibly be suspension related, if not the caliper.

Just curious but did this ever get resolved? If so, what was the culprit?

The car was looked at when I brought it into the dealership. Since I was getting my winter tires+rims mounted anyways. narfy had a go with it before they took the stock rims off and didn't find anything troubling about it. They retracted the calipers to see if that would help.

Everything seems fine so far with the winter tires on.