Brake question

So the other day I needed to stop very quickly. I pressed the pedal to the floor and stopped just in time. But the brakes never locked nor did the ABS kick in. Ideal right? Well I thought I had way more braking performance before. (i.e. Powerful brakes/shorter stopping distance). At least enough to force the ABS to kick in on dry pavement.

I got in there and checked pads and rotor thickness. All is normal. Fluid is normal and clean. Well now I'm thinking that the rears are a little grabby at very slow speeds which makes me think brake bias may have shifted rearward somehow. I have a lift and used the small bracket for the load sensing proportion valve under the bed.

Any thoughts? Rear drums are less than 6 months fresh. Shoes and drums.

Thoughts?

 

the hard stop may have glazed the front pads a bit so it feels like the back is gripping more than the front. My thoughts would be to check the front pads, remove them and scuff them up with a wire brush. If the proportioning valve was working properly before a hard stop shouldnt affect it.

 

Yeah, I thought of that and all seems normal up there. But the stop was what got me thinking I had better performance before. I'm wondering if maybe air in the lines? I had to add a bit of fluid last week. I checked for leaks and found none. I may have to bleed again...

 

Does the pedal feel squishier than before, or just less braking performance? Did you do any work lately that would have caused a lubricant to get on the rotors or pads?

Squishy feel, bleed for sure. less performance may lead to bleeding and bleeding and bleeding without getting to the actual problem (...whatever that is)

 

No no work lately. It could be the last time I bled something went wrong, and I didn't notice till now. I bled the lines when I did drums and shoes. Bleeding is cheap. I'll try that first and see.

I'm thinking the only way I needed to add fluid the other day is if some of the air trapped in the lines found its way up and into the reservoir. Brake light came on so I checked the fluid first.

 

Give 'em a bleed and see what happens. like you said, it's cheap.

If that doesn't do it come on back