Cwopinger's Trail Limo Build, Travels, and BS Thread

Morning Blevin

 

Good morning everybody. I hope you all had a great weekend and here’s to a good Monday too.

About to head to town to drop the wife’s car off at the shop. Brakes are feeling really spongy. Fluid level is good and no leaks in the garage but something doesn’t feel right.

 

What was the deal with the brakes?

 

Brakes were fixed before, what was the issue?

 

Morning Blevin

 

I sense an answer materializing ...

 

Morning Blevin


Sup with the brakes?

 

Good morning guys It’s taco Tuesday! Enjoy them!


Sorry to leave you guys hanging on the brakes. This is my wife’s Lexus with brake problems now, the truck is doing fine. Her Lexus is a 2004 ES, it’s a great car and she loves it and doesn’t want to trade it in. Only 174k on the odometer, not bad for a 20 year old car.

Over the weekend the wife said her brakes were acting funny, when she would be stopped at a light they would make a grinding sound and the car would try to creep forward. She said she had to push the pedal down more than normal to hold it. She also said she “feels” like she’s using more pedal stroke than she used to. The car had new rotors and front pads installed last oil change so less than 5k on them now.

I initially was thinking surface rust on the rotors scraping off as we’ve had a lot of off and on rain but she said it will do it on multiple stops for days in a row. That doesn’t sound like surface rust to me. I checked the fluid level, it’s full and doesn’t look really dark but I don’t remember if it’s had a fluid flush. No leaks at the calipers that I could see looking under the car. No leaks on the garage floor. I took it for a drive, it didn’t do the grinding thing on me. I did a few 35-45 mph hard stops, the car stopped fine. Seemed like a reasonable distance to stop. No shudders, side pulling or lights on the dash but the pedal felt spongy and did seem to need a lot of stroke to activate.

We dropped it off at my trusted shop we’ve used for years. We both told them what it had done and I asked they look at the records for a fluid flush and check the flex lines for any swelling. They were busy yesterday so they had it all day but called late in the afternoon. Their master mechanic did a full visual on all the calipers, pads and lines. No leaks, the flex lines are metallic so no signs of swelling or any deterioration. No codes in the computer, he activated all the ABS servos multiple times with the scanner, no errors there.

He took it on a decent test drive and agreed the pedal felt spongy to him. The car finally did the grinding thing a couple of times as he was coming back to the shop. He felt the pedal pressure drop some as it happened. He checked for codes again and there isn’t any. He can’t find any leaks around the master cylinder and doesn’t see any bubbles in the reservoir when the pedal is pushed down but said it’s got to be the master cylinder.

At least this one is a lot cheaper than the master cylinder on the truck since the ABS servo assembly is separate.

I really can’t complain, it’s the first big issue since we’ve bought the car.

 

You were correct sir

 

Thx Blevin

 

Taco Bob’s doesn’t have taco holders like that, maybe I should inquire

 

Happy hump day Blevin and crew

 

Good morning guys, have a great Wednesday!

Babysitting today and tomorrow

 

Grandpa is a great gig ... tiring ... but GREAT!