I'm sure people have had similar problems but it's hard to explain.
When I press my brake pedal down it makes a "throbbing" feeling. The pedal itself doesn't "sink down" or feel "soft" nor do my brakes squeek or make any weird noises. It feels like there's resistance pushing up against my foot as I push the pedal down.


The car's braking suffers because of this and I think it would be a lot better if it was a smoother braking. This is on a completely stock 94 civic ex. Anyone experience this?

 

maybe the rotors are warped. mine did the same thing until i changed my rotors

 

Oh yeah, I have experienced that. The first time I took my Civic down the freeway, I hit the brakes on the off ramp the pedal pulsated and the whole car shook like crazy. Classic, textbook symptom of warped rotors.

 

Can you feel the warped rotors in your steering wheel ?

That's the tell tail sign.

Or are you saying that sitting still and stepping on the brake you feel it push back.

 

take off wheels and look.

 

buy drilled slotted rotors and next time they wont warp very easy if thats what is wrong with you civic. you can use a micrometer to check for warped rotors or just replace them and go from there! could be you brake booster or master as well.if your rotors are more than a couple yars old i would replace them for the heck of it!
you can score a set of drilled slotted rotors at autozone for like 150 bucks and they have a 3 year warranty

 

if your just going to buy new oem rotors then try getting your old rotors turned at a machine shop first, that would save you money.

 

most likly your car is equipped with ABS brakes that keeps them from locking up.

edit:and there is probally something wrong with it and it activates to easily

 

if you are slowing down and you feel the puslating feeling in the steering wheel at all, it is in the front. if you only feeling it in the seat of your pants, as that the car feels like it pulses its the rear brakes warped. the common reason for warped front brakes is an emergency stop from high speed, and when you completely stop and still push the pedal very hard, while the rotors are soft due to heat the pads slightly crush the rotors faces very slightly, if its the rears then usually its from using the parking brake to slide around. also either fornts or rears cant warp due to sitting too long and the rust thta builds up gets bad enough that the part where the pad or shoe had rested while the car sat for like at least a month if not mroe than 2 or 3 months, is the only not rusty spot and when you use the brakes youll get a horrible pulsing. usually it had to get cut on a lathe or replaced.

 

i'm just a noob, but a similar problem happened with a old buick in auto shop class back in high school, it was the brake booster at fault.

 

fastrc2 is completely right. so is ej1 rep.

 

dont turn your rotors it cost 15 bucks each and you can get cheap new oem one for 20 bucks each at autozone if your gonna go that route! but like i said if it was mine, i like to stop good without noise and i hate changeing them oe ones out cause i warp them after 6 months. so buy drilled slotted rotors you can obtain a decent set for 135 buck i belive. get the ceramic pads($50). spray with permatex anti squeel! if that does not work then come back and tell us. it would help if you explained the problem a bit more...like is your steering wheel shaking as well. any addittional explaining would help!

 

The car does not shake, the steering wheel does not shake, no noises of anykind.
Only problem is the throbbing on the pedals.

And it's not the ABS kicking in early, I don't have ABS (I know I have an EX, but there's no ABS).... however, I've locked my brakes up with ABS before and it does FEEL like the ABS is kicking in because of the throbbing feeling.