last night I adjusted the rear brakes and put new pads on the front cause the pedal was startin to feel weak and was very low...that brought it back up (the front brakes is what the pedal back up top, the rear brake adjustment didnt do squat) anyways it was fine, I went and broke in the brakes doin some serious brakin to get them hot and today on my way back from a friend's house, in rush hour traffic, I lost all the braking power I had...my pedal went to the floor, I had to pump it and I relyed on my motor for braking power rather than my brakes, I just went outside to check the fluid level, and started the car, the brakes are back...but I am worried if I drive it again the pedal will go back down to the floor, I KNOW they didn't overheat, I can tell teh differance, they had fluid, which means it can't be a hole in the system..

is it the master cylinder? what could it be? what controls your brake pedal?? is it the rear brakes or the front brakes or both?

how can I troubleshoot and test this? I know M/S if that goes, you would be sittin at a stop sign/red light and your pedal goes to teh floor...right/wrong?? does it also cause problems that I am having?

I know almost nothing about brakes and this is frustrating...TIA,

|eb_CRX

 

you have air in your lines. that part where you lost brake for a second is an air bubble that you pressed on making the pedal go all the way to the floor. Bleed your lines and it should be fine

 

but that's the thing, sometimes it's great, sometmies it's back down, from my understanding, if it was air in the system it would be a consistant thing cause the air wouldn't be moving nowhere, it'd stay there, but the way it is now, it's differant everytime I press the pedal, either I got brakes, or I dont

|eb_CRX

 

Try doing this, with your engine off pump your brakes. Your brake pedal should be getting stiffer and stiffer. When you can no longer pump anymore, keep pressure on the pedal. It should not go down at all. If it does go down then you might have a bad master cylinder.

 

I just tried it, it's going donw a tiny bit, barely anything noticable...but it definitivally didn't go down all the way to the floor, and I held it for a good 10 seconds

|eb_CRX


[Modified by Leb_CRX, 5:25 PM 4/18/2002]

 

Also engine running, press hard, then press softly, if it slowly goes down, bad master.

One way it gets screwed it up is using the pedal pump flush method, because normally the pedal never goes below halfway. If you have a crudded up master (from not flushing), pumping to the floor causes the piston seals in the master to scrape over the crud, usually shredding them.