Hi everyone. I own a 1997 Dodge Dakota SLT with the 5.2 V8. I am having some spongy brakes as of lately. Checked it over and the pads and rotors are in good shape. Bled the brake lines, but to no avail. If I am cruising over 30mph and slam on the brakes it slowly comes to a stop. Can't get the brakes to lock up completely. Does anyone have advice on what I should be looking at that might be causing this? Your help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

does your peddle go to the floor? I am not sure what u mean by "spongy". Also what technique did you use to bleed them. Please be thorough. All i can think is air is still in the lines, just being stubborn and not getting out or (and i'm not sure if the booster is vacume assisted) your not getting vaccume or enough of it to the booster.

 

Sounds like loss of pressure (which I am sure you already knew) but that can come from a number of different things. Slow leak in a line, possibly one of the pistions (unlikely) or the master cyclinder. I know that is basically the whole system but I think that there is a way that you can have that tested. I would say start looking at the master cylinder first...to me it seems like that is where the problem would be coming from. Hope that helps some and let me know how you make out.

 

By "spongy" I mean that the brake pedal has plenty of pressure but not much stopping power. It just seems to take me a long time to get the truck slowed down when coming up to stop signs and lights and what not. I bled the line with another guy helping. He would crack open the valves and I would slowly push the pedal to the floor. Then, he would tighten the valve back up and then I would pump the brake pedal for a short while. Then we would repeat the process. It really improved the pressure to the brake pedal, but did nothing to improve the stopping problem. Thanks for the information guys. Let me know if you think of anything else. I will have the system tested. Hopefully it will be something I can fix!

 

Could be as simple as inappropriate front brake pads. Some of those 'lifetime' pads are very hard and give poor stopping power. If you have recent pads installed on old rotors, it takes a long time, 300+ miles, for the pad to conform to the wear pattern on the rotors.

Did you check your rear drums too? They contribute about 30-40% of your braking power. They're supposed to automatically adjust when you back up and apply the brakes. If someone replaced the rear shoes and didn't reinstall the adjusters properly, your rear brakes gradually stop working.

I presume there is no sign of brake fluid or 'moisture' on the calipers and pads. Sometimes pushing back the pistons when installing new pads forces the piston seals over debris in the caliper and starts the seals leaking. It doesn't take much to spoil the pads with brake fluid.

I presume you have no brake worning light, that should rule out a faulty master cylinder.

Could be a leaky power brake booster. If you shut off the engine, does the first brake application feel normal (normal pedal effort)? If it feels like the pedal hardly goes down and with high effort on this first engine-off pedal application you could have a torn booster diaghram.

Has any one replaced your master cylinder or booster? You could have the wrong parts installed or incorrectly installed. Some rebuilt stuff just does not work!

Please bring it to a pro if you don't get things sorted real soon. You don't want to take any chances with weak brakes!