truck has about 85k miles
ok so since ive had my truck my step dad keeps saying that my brakes suck and there is something wrong with them, i think its just him cause the brakes in his sierra are retarded sensitive, but since ive driven my buddys ram im starting to question them

pretty much when i push on the brakes, they are kind of like a sponge, when stopped i have to have the pedal pushed like half way down and keep a good amount of pressure on it for it to stay depressed. the brakes stop fine mainly prolly cause im used to them lol, my buddys ram's brakes are pretty sensitive which is what got me curious cause dodge uses a lot of the same style of engineering
EDIT: the brake pedal kinda sounds like it is powered on air lol

another issue ive started noticing since its gotten cold is that whenever i got over some sort of bump in the road that makes my suspension bob up and down, i hear a odd sound, kind of like jumping on an old matress lol, im thinking it might be my shocks

what else should i be looking at with this mileage, tomorrow im gonna look over the truck if i get motivated enough lol

any input would be appreciated.

 

That "mattress squeak" sounds like it could be a bad control arm bushing, or other bushing in the suspension. It could also be a ball joint, but it's more than likely a bushing, but don't rule out the ball joints.

As far as your brakes go, my Dakota has a pretty stiff pedal. It sounds like your pads are getting low. If you can do your own work, a brake job isn't all that hard, but the springs on the outside of the caliper are bit annoying. If not, take your truck to a shop and have them look at the brakes, but only take it to a shop you trust.

 

Yea we r firm believers in not taking vehicles to a shop unless we can't do it ourselves
How would I know if it was a ball joint or brushing, would it look obvious

 

i actually have something similar, my break pedal seems spongy. anywho i took it to a small shop and told them to look at it and he said that my pads were prac tically new but whoever changed them before I got the truck didnt change or turn the rotors and thats why the pedal feels like that. butwhen its wet there are sensitive as heck. so maybe that will give u a few ideas.

 

yea my brakes are the same the pads are perfectly fine i might take it somewhere to have them checked
found out where the squeak was coming from it is the bushings on the sway bar so ill look online to check prices for those, any certain brands of bushings i should stay away from

 

fram! lol jk

 

looks like advance carries moog ill go with those
i also noticed this when i took a pic it looked like the end of the sway bar was cracked but now that i look at this it may have just been the way the light was on it
should i replace these bushings as well?

 

ok so how do i know which one of these i need
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...ay+bar+bushing

 

The picture you took looks like the sway bar end links. And yeah I'd replace those as well.

As far as the sway bar bushings, you need to measure your sway bar. Take a piece of string and wrap it around the bar next to the control arm bushing, end to end.
Take the string and lay it out straight on the ground. Measure how long it is then devide in half, and that'll tell you how big your sway bar is.

As far as brands, Moog is always a good way to go. I always go moog for bushings.

 

yea thats what they are i know i need to replace the bushings towards the middle of the truck and i was wondering if the end link bushings need replacing while im at it

i found a caliper laying around my house and it was like 33.45mm
so i think there is one that works for 33mm and 34mm sway bars

edit: i went to my local advance to see if they knew which ones i needed (they didnt lol) and when i was pulling out of the parking lot going at low speed i could here a high pitch squeaking (its been happening for a while know just actually noticed it again today), it is definitely suspension related cause it only happens when im moving, i heard that when the ball joints start to go bad they make that kinda sound