Hey everybody
How far do you have to press the brake pedal down before the brakes start to grab and then the car comes to a total stop. I have stock everything regarding the brakes and I only have 6300 miles on the car. My friend drove my car and he felt that you had to push the pedal a little more than normal (mind you, he doesnt drive an F-Body). Maybe I just got used to it, but now I'm not sure, I think that I have to press it a little too much before it grabs. Any suggestions?? Thanks.

 

if he doesnt drive an f body how would he know...i would say its fine..does it make like a hydrolic sound the first like 1/2 inch when you press it..my dads tahoe does that i think its kinda cool...

your car sounds fine to me.

 

The more your brakes are worn down the further you'll have to push the pedal down, you can remedy this by adding fluid in the brake resevoir.

 

Ummm.... stik....

As the pads wear, the caliper piston moves further out of the caliper bore. Fluid from the reservoir moves to the calipers to fill the increased volume in the bore behind the piston which has moved to a "more pushed out" (how's that for a nice technical term?) static position.

This does not effect the pedal at all. As the pedal is released (after applying the brakes), the fluid from the reservoir moves into the lines to take up the increased volume from the pistons being moved out of the bores.

When you press the pedal again, you are pressing on a full volume just as if the pads were fresh.

Soooo.... anyway, adding fluid to the reservoir will not affect the pedal (unless, for some reason it's empty... which I'm sure it's not).

Now, as for that squishy feeling pedal.... I too thought the pedal was a bit mushy (not nearly as much so as my Suburban .... ). After many, many flushings (bleeding) and a few sets of pads (lots of track days)......it's still mushy. Just the way it is....

I would bleed yours though.... just to be sure.

Gordon
www.provenperformanceconcepts.com

 

i dont think bleeding will solve that......but i could be wrong...

 

you cannnot jump into 2 diffrent cars and compare if you feel that they are going to the floor than you might havt to change it. if it has over 50k mi on the brakes they are way over due for changing.

 

ya that can work...but all cars will be a lil different.....who knows maybe the other persons car is messed up too

 

Remember, the guy's only got 6300 miles on it.....

Aside from a faulty Master Cyl. (prematurely and not real likely)) or possible air in the system (not real likely)....

All's probably as it should be....

 

sorry my bad.... Your brakes a prob. fine. they just feel diffrent than the other car. 2 cars are not going to feel the same.

 

6300 miles..did u beat on your brakes?????
or drive them normally......i know a kid who messed up his rotors and brakes within 2000 miles you could see right thru the rotors cause they were cracked so bad

 

That's not cracking.....

That's just extreme slotting.....

 

lmao.ya thats it


hey if u want slottted rotors go beat the hell out ofyour stock ones and you get it for free..... and the plesure of the wheel shaking like crazy when you try to stop...lmao

 

Thanks everyone for their replies - I guess it is just normal this way. I haven't beat on my brakes, I've never taken it to the track and never really had to hit my brakes hard, but I do drive a lot of stop and go city roads. It just feels kinda weird that the car really wont come to a complete stop until I press the brake pedal quite hard. Maybe its just all the power that the car has I've been driving a Civic lately (because of the snow) and my previous car was a 4 cylinder 89 mustang. But thanks for all the thoughts!

 

good luck