Ford F-150 - 1997-2003 :: Soft Brake Pedal With Hiss While Applying Brakes
Jan 27, 2013
I just joined as I bought my '97 F-150 5.4 4X4 about 3 months ago. The dealer gave me a 6 month warranty but hasn't honored it at all and I've had one problem after another. That's another story though but right now I'm just trying to fix the important issues. The problem at hand are my brakes.
I was noticing a couple days ago (maybe I never noticed it that much as it was a new vehicle to me) that when I apply the brakes it sounds like a bicycle pump and the pedal travels nearly all the way down. It doesn't hit the firewall but I'd probably guess it has 3 more inches or less until it bottoms out. The hissing only occurs as the pedal travels and stops when the brake pedal isn't moving.
Now I'm not sure if the hissing sound is normal as I replaced the brake booster (from the junkyard though) and the new one still hisses when I apply brakes. The brakes seem to work okay, could be more sensitive it's just the pedal feels soft until it almost bottoms out like I stated before and the the brakes grab a little bit harder. What could it be?
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I have a 2002 Honda Civic EX 1.7L. Recently the brake pedal would sometimes go to the floor when I'd apply the brakes. The car would still stop, but not as quickly as normally. If I apply the brake and it goes to the floor I would release the pedal and reapply the brake and it would stop at it's normal position and the brakes felt firm and the car would stop fine. I was told my problem was the master cylinder so I bought one on Sunday and replaced it. I bled the lines and it seemed like all the air was out. The brakes worked great and the pedal stopped in the same place and was firm.
Now today on my way to work the pedal went down a little farther than normal during one stop. On the way home it stopped in different places. The brakes would always grab and the pedal felt fairly firm wherever it stopped. I drove it this evening again and the pedal went to the floor like with the old master cylinder. One pump and they grabbed in the normal spot. What is going on? Did I not bleed the lines well enough? Is the new master cylinder just junk? I saw in the manual that air can get trapped in the ABS sensor, but an air bubble problem should just make the pedal squishy, not change where it grabs, right? I'm stumped and I really don't want to take my car in if I can fix it.
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So I have a 2004 Jetta 1.8t. Recently I noticed an issue with the brakes. It is a rare occurrence that this issue happens. Maybe 1 out 6 times I slowly stop the brake pedal seems to put pressure back against me applying brake pressure and makes somewhat of a grinding noise and the brakes don't seem to grab as well. But a split second later the brakes return to normal and grab as expected. Could it possibly be air in the brake lines or something totally different?
- Front brakes are in excellent condition.
- Just replaced the driver side front abs sensor and put new rear brakes and rotors on.
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My son just bought a 97 F150 with the back brakes blocked off. The front brakes had about full pedal when the was on. We changed the front calipers and brake pads. Bled them came back with great brakes (with back brakes blocked).
Then we found out the back calipers was none so we bought all new parts for both back brakes, found some leaks in the rear lines fixed them. Now we bled the brakes with the motor off till no air came out. Solid pedal. Then turned on the motor and the pedal goes down 3/4 of the way now easy.
Stops on snow good no tire sliding. Turn off the motor has solid pedal again.
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I have a 2004 Ford Expedition and today on the freeway I had to step on the brakes pretty hard to avoid an accident. After pressing, the pedal resistance became really soft and the brakes worked, but were very sensitive (a lot of pedal movement to brake). I had this happen some time ago and I did a complete system flush and no problems since then, but it has to do with how hard I hit the brakes. What could be wrong????? BTW - I never noticed the anti-lock brake pedal pulse at all during this event. I'm not even sure it is working at this point. No dash lights to indicate an error of any sort.
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2001 F150--V8-4.6-3.55--8.8. 221000 Miles. Changed front rotors and pads. Had scrubbing noise from right rear when applying breaks heavily. Changed rear rotors and pads. Still have scrubbing noise when breaking hard. I do not hear any noise when driving regular or when normal breaking. Differential fluid was a tad low. Applied fluid. Still have scrubbing noise. No leaks at hub seal or pinion. Bearings ? Maybe?
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I changed front rotors and bled brakes. They were hard for a few days and went soft. No leak in fluid (MC reservoir is still full). No leak in fluid near any wheel. Could I need to bench bleed the master cylinder?
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I recently purchased a mutt of truck, a 97' F150 heritage w/5.4 Triton motor, 1/2 ton 2WD short bed.
Having a brake issue, the pedal keeps fading. I noticed it first while sitting in traffic on a down hill grade. I am holding the pedal and notice it starts to creep down slowly, I pump it up and it firms up then starts collapsing again. So general logic says hydraulics are loosing pressure right?....No leaks anywhere, so it must MC tight?
I have replaced the master cylinder, brake booster, and both rear wheel cylinders. Long story short they all needed it, truck has 265K+ on the body with 95K on the motor. The only thing I did not do by standard is bleed the MC on the bench, I installed and long bled starting with the right rear working my from longest distance to shortest (wheel speaking). So when bleeding I did of course get air coming out because of the new parts but I still have the same fade issue.
I am confident there is no air in the lines, I have bleed a quart of brake fluid through just to be sure. I have read a lot about proportioning valves and ABS stuff.
I will try and get some vehicle specific photos and attach have hit a road block with this. I am leaning towards the ABS valve thingy mounted on the drivers fender that has four lines attached (2 in and 2 out). Other than that it comes down to hard lines which have no leaks.
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Purchased new 2012 Ford F350 to haul slide in camper. When I step on the brakes they go 3/4 of the way down. If I pump again, they go 1/4 of the way down (normal). Brought this to Ford dealer, they test drove the vehicle and admitted I had a problem with the brakes. They told Ford and Ford faxed a letter stating they are aware of this issue and there is nothing they can do about it. Stated this is a "soft braking pedal problem" with some of the 2011 and 2012 Ford trucks.
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2014 Passat... I've got a little over 2,000 miles on mine now and I really do like the car. However, one thing that is really bothersome to me is----the brakes.
I'm not sure if it is specific to my car or to the passat in general. Here's the issue:
When applying the brakes, the pedal feels almost loose, as though the is no pressure on it, but once you push the pedal down far enough the brakes come on heavy, hard and fast. It's like turning on a light switch.
I am wondering if this is an adjustment that I can have done at the dealer to put more feel into the brakes or if this is just something that we all have to live with, of if maybe there could be something wrong with the brakes on my car.
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I took delivery last week of a new 2012 F250 with a 6.7 Power Stroke Diesel. This is my third F250 with a Power Stroke Diesel. My first one was a 1997 w/7.3 PSD and my last one was 2001 w/7.3 PSD which I traded in for the 2012.
Now for my problem. The brakes seem spongy to me. When I am applying the brakes I get what seems like a longer than normal pedal travel (to me anyway) and soft. The braking isn't as good as my last two F250's. If I pump the brakes, the brake pedal firms up and the braking really improves. I have not contacted my dealer yet.
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The pedal used to go right down to the floor and would barely stop the car from a crawl, in response I have bled the brake lines to all calipers, and checked the hydro booster fluid level, and with only slight improvement the pedal almost hits the floor.
I am thinking the brake master cylinder is shot. The pedal becomes solid after about 15 pumps when off, and holds pressure, when on it takes several pumps to build any sort of pressure and cannot be built up to the solid point, and looses pressure quickly when just holding the pedal down.
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I have a Hyundai Santa Fe 2005 2.7L 4WD ABS.
The problem is that the Brakes pedal is so soft, that it goes to the floor, and doesn't brake at all in first pedaling. I am able to apply brakes after pumping the pedal thrice in continuation and then when it builds up some pressure, then it brakes and I'm able to stop the car. Once, I take the foot out of the pedal, it goes bad again. Once, again if I have to apply brakes, I have to do 3-4 times pedaling.
The brakes are stopping the car fine when they get applied in 3rd or 4th pedaling and when pressure is built up. Its the pressure not getting built up or maintained in the first go.
What has been done by the mechanics to solve this:
1. Master Cylinder has been replaced with a new one. (This has been done twice)
2. Brake Pads have been changed.
3. Brake fluid has been replaced and is upto the brim in cylinder reservoir.
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I own a stock 2010 golf with 22k miles on it. There seems to be a problem with brake feel. Brake pedal feels way too soft and there is way too much pedal travel for brakes to engage. Car won't start decelerating until pedal is pushed nearly 1/2 of its total travel length. However there seems no problem with stopping the car. On hard braking car stops well (with ABS). Another problem is brake feel isn't linear.
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I have a 05 Ford escape with 107K. When I make a right turn and applying the brakes I feel a clunking in the brake pedal. checked all front brakes and all is ok. So I looked at the drive shaft on the drivers side. I can move or wobble the drive shaft around on the in board CV going in the transmission. Is that normal?
There are no "Clicking" sounds any where while turning which would tell me that is what it is. Also while driving slow not applying brakes there is a lot of clunking and knocking sounds while going over a few little bumps here and there. Is it the inboard CV joint?
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I bought a 97 f150 4x4 last week. I was cleaning the frame up with a wire brush on a grinder and accidently cut one of the front brake lines. Seeing how this truck has only 100k on it and all oem stuff on it, I decided to replace the front brake components, calipers, pads, rubber and steel lines. Got it all back together and bleed the air out of the front brakes. But the pedal still goes to the floor. I can pump them up with the key off but when i turn it on the pedal goes to the floor. I did not bleed the back brakes becasue I assumed that the master cylinder would be divided and independent of each other- back and front. So it this just that the back brakes needs bled or do I have another issue like bad booster- everything was working well before I cut the line?
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2005 F-250 6.0 4x4. After about 50,000 miles on my original brakes, they started to make a squealing noise when applying moderate brake pressure and slowing down around 30mph-0mph. It only happens after Ive driven the truck about 30 mins. It must be warmed up. After 100,000 I decided to change the brakes.....they had plenty of life left on them, but I changed them anyway. I put on new rotors and pads and calipers in the front because one was hanging.
After about 10,000 miles, the exact same squeal has returned. With the windows down, its loud enough to physically hurt your ears if you are next to a car and the sound can bounce back into the cab. It sounds terrible. I thought it was the front brakes, so I took them apart this weekend to put in some Disc Brake Quiet. They pads look great, plenty left, the rotors look great, no grooves. Everything is tight. I relubed pins and brackets and clips. Today...same squeal still. I am at a complete loss here. It is some sort of harmonic squeal and the only thing I can figure is that the rears are the culprit. I have a drivers rear caliper that will hang and stick if you drive it really hard, so I am considering replacing the rear calipers too and do the disc brake quiet treatment there as well. Im not confident this will solve the problem.
Like I said, its so loud you can't drive with the windows down. Its a piercing squeal. Is there anything else that I can check? I can't imagine others don't do this. Its so loud and pronounced that it must be some sort of design flaw or something.
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Got Elantra GT 6 month ago. Good car, but it seems I have a very common problem of Elantras - lost of brakes. My car has TCS, but no ABS. It started 4 month ago. Car is fine for several weeks, but then within two days brake pedal getting from bad to worse. My mechanic already replaced master cylinder and right rear caliper. Did not work. Yesterday it was third time when I almost (very soft pedal) lost brakes. Today in Hyundai dealer service they bled the brakes and said "that they hope it will work". Their mechanic found air in both (left and right) rear brake lines. So, my question if I have a leak in, say, left line will it propagate to the right line? I am asking because I do not know the hydraulic schema of the brakes and want to collect as much info as possible.
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I have a 2001 Ford Ranger 4x4 that developed an odd problem almost two years ago that no mechanic I've taken it to has been able to find and fix, and I and my more car-savvy friends haven't had any luck with either.
About maybe 50% of the time when I sharply turn left (only left, never right) the brake pedal goes "soft" and the vehicle's braking power drops dramatically (but not entirely). Because of the sharp angle required to make this happen, and the low speeds I have to be moving at to even handle that sharp of a turn with this vehicle, this has only ever happened when I pull into a parking spot, and the vehicle still manages to come to a complete stop safely before being in danger of hitting anything. It never ever happens at any other time, and brakes like a champ normally.
I've had numerous other issues with the brakes in this vehicle in the last two years, all of which I've fixed. This one eludes me and every mechanic I've taken it to, though. I've replaced both calipers, both rotors, the brake pads, bled all four brake lines, and had the ABS control unit and ABS motor replaced.
At the time the issue first appeared, I had two damaged calipers caused by shoddy brake pads disintegrating on me (almost new, barely worn, but covered in pockmarks, looked like a Michigan road) and clogging up the calipers. That caused the vehicle to lurch to a halt with screeching tires if I so much as barely tapped the brake pedal. Replacing the calipers and brake pads fixed that issue, but did not fix the soft pedal issue when turning left. I ended up with the same screeching sudden stop problem recently when the ABS module went bad, replacing it fixed that, the brake pads and calipers are still in good condition, and replacing the ABS did not fix the soft pedal issue.
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I have a 79 f150. I changed two brake lines and master cylinder and bleed,and more bleed,but still very soft all most to floor? wheel cylinders look good.
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I have a 2001 Dodge Durang. 105k miles.
Brake pedal is real soft goes pretty far down (close to floor) before brakes kick in.
Check front disc pads and rear shoe pads, both look good. Fluid level is good. Bleed brake lines.
Pump brakes up when car is off, pedal is real firm till I turn car on an push on brake pedal right to the floor.
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