Alrighty, I've been here on this board so long reading about cams and turbos but haven't picked up any troubleshooting tips on the important thing...the off switches!

When I first enter my car (after it's been sitting a while) and put my foot on the brake pedal (before turning car on) the pedal is hard as a rock, and the brakes physically don't engage until the car is running. In other words the e-brake and the fact that the car is in gear are the only reason it's not moving anywhere-no matter how hard I stomp on the brake pedal. Is this just a simple issue of bleeding the brakes (air problem)? Seems like it?!?


[Modified by Tweakmeister, 6:00 AM 6/28/2002]

 

Ahh the joy of power brakes. Leg excersises will help you keep the car from rolling before starting. When I am in this situation, like on a hill I just keep the ebrake on until I have the engine running. Bleeding the brakes won't change anything.

I once had a car(auto) that stalled on me in the middle of a left turn while I was moving about 15mph. I could not steer or brake.

 

the brakes are working.. its just that when the motor is running you have power assist.. just press harder and it should stop your car... if you press down and the pedal is firm and doesn't sink down or anything.. you should be fine.. if it does sink down.. you either need to bleed your brakes or maybe your master cyl is going (i just replaced mine last week)... but yeah.. if the pedal is firm.. its fine.. just your thinking its not working/not gripping hard because your used to the power assist from the power brakes when ur motor is running..

 

ahh okay...yeah I familiar with power assist...I used to turn off my truck and coast down the hill to my house...took me and the passenger to turn the wheel

I guess I just didn't realize that for brakes on this size of a car they would still act that way! My '96 didn't do this to such an extent...but maybe it's MC is going

thanks for the help guys!

 

Master cylinder would be fine.... it's the brake booster that's not holding pressure. It should hold pressure for a while. My car doesn't exibit the problem at all... and neither have any of the RX-7's I've owned. I would put a vacuum gauge / vacuum pump on the brake booster and make sure it's holding pressure. (My guess is that it's not) I would look into replacing it.

Edit: could also be an inline check valve going to the brake booster.


[Modified by Brian_TII, 5:40 PM 6/28/2002]