Jeep Pulling towards the driver side when braking

So I just had my ball joints replaced, and on the way home from the shop, I noticed that when braking at highway speeds, my jeep is pulling pretty hard to the driver's side. It drives straight as an arrow otherwise. It doesn't seem to pull at all when braking below 40mph. The front rotors seem to be equally and appropriately hot. The wheels themselves do not feel hot, and it doesn't smell as if I'm burning through brake pads. Tire pressure is equal all the way around. I'm going to bring it back to the shop obviously, but I was wondering if there's a common cause of this that I'm missing that I could take care of on my own? (The shop I use is over an hour away, so it's not exactly easy to just drop by)

I would guess you have a caliper hanging up. What I would do is start with a cold Jeep. Go drive it a mile or two using the brakes only a couple of times. Using either a temp gun or the back of your hand near the rotors (don't touch, just feel for radiating heat). I'm guessing you will find on the opposite side of the pull, a cool brake disk.

When they reassembled your brakes, the might have a slider jammed up or not lubed correctly. Once you come back from your drive and initial troubleshooting, put the front end up on jacks and try to turn each wheel and see if ones turns easier than the other. Next, have a helper lightly press the brake pedal while you watch the caliper movement looking for differential or lack of movement between the left and right side.

Now another option is to take it back to the shop that did your ball joint install and have them figure it out under warranty!

Thanks, I'll give that a try tomorrow

Just in case anyone has a similar problem in the future and finds this thread - I did what was suggested above, and really could not tell a temp difference between the rotors on either side. I bled both front brakes (There was a small amount of air on the passenger side front) - problem solved.

Mikead40 said:

Just in case anyone has a similar problem in the future and finds this thread - I did what was suggested above, and really could not tell a temp difference between the rotors on either side. I bled both front brakes (There was a small amount of air on the passenger side front) - problem solved.

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Good to know. Air in the line would definitely do it. Just curious, any idea if the shop pulled the brake calipers off to install the ball joints (i.e. separated the brake line from the caliper)?

ERAUGrad04 said:

Good to know. Air in the line would definitely do it. Just curious, any idea if the shop pulled the brake calipers off to install the ball joints (i.e. separated the brake line from the caliper)?

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No - But they were hung from the frame while they put the ball joints in - which may have allowed it to entrain some air if there was a loose connection or something...