Hey guys, I have a 96' Ram 1500 5.2L 318 2 wheel drive Automatic tranny.

My brakes have been acting up ever since i had new brake pads put on and had my rotors spun.
At first it felt like their was air in the line becuase the pedal was really "squishy".
then i had them adjusted and i think the guy over did it becuase they felt really tight and i noticed my ABS would not engage....the truck would just come to a stop evenutally no matter how much pressure i applied to the brakes.

Now My ABS as well as my Parking Brake light have come on and they stay on. On top of that My pedal goes all the way to the floor before i get any response on my brakes.

I am thinking Master Cylinder but i had it replaced 4 years ago. Could it be anything else?

 

BLEED< BLEED< AND REBLEED!!!!

Sounds to me like you have some good air in the lines...I am not thinking master cyl. I am thingking you need to bleed the brakes....2 person job

 

Would the ABS and emergency Brake light come on if it just needs to blead.

man i hope that is all that it is.

 

I have a 95' and I have redone my brakes. I can tell you what I know, and what I think are steady brake problems, with trucks like ours.

1. If your master cylinder is 4 years old, and has worked intil now, I suggest that brake bleeding is not necessary. Changing pads and brake hardware does nothing to warrant brake bleeding. And bleeding the brakes on trucks our age is pretty complicated if you don't know what you are doing. For the garage mechanic, it is a 2 man job for sure. If you have the "specialty tools", one guy can do it. There is a defined procedure for bleeding. I'll explain later.

2. My 95' was only rear wheel antilock, so I only had a sensor in the rear axle to deal with. If you have front antilock, there is sensors on each well hub as well. You need to check a little further into your specific application. My red brake light comes on if there is low vacuum, a pressure differential between the front and rear brake lines, and when you apply the manual parking brake. The ABS light is for the rear speed sensor, the anitlock valve solenoids, and it's tied to the PCM. Again, your application make differ slightly.

3. Another area to look at is the vacuum booster. When you do your vacuum test, just pull the check valve out of the booster and see if you hear air rush in. It doesn't necessarily mean there's nothing wrong with the booster, it just means there is no major tears in the diaphrams. A pinhole, would give that mushy pedal that you feel.

4. If your lines are original, get underneath and inspect things thuroughly.

5. Your vehicle has a manifold right under the master cylinder (mc). That manifold has several functions. It is a brake pressure differential valve, a proportioning valve, and a metering valve. I can assure you that the valve does not have infinite life. That valve, when working properly, has to give the fronts full pressure, the rears get lower pressure, and the rates at which they apply is also controlled. It gets in depth.....lol. The jist of it is, if the valve has failed, your brakes will feel unusual.

6. Another common occurence which happens all the time is MECHANICS themselves. Ever see a grease monkey unbolt a caliper, and then let the hose support the weight? I want to take a hacksaw and cut the dudes hands off. This is what almost always breaks an inner liner. Kept the thing hooked to your coil spring. The flex hose is not built for excursion.

I know I rattle on, but check the easy things first. The vacuum is critical. And no offense, if your new brake pads are the inexpensive kind, then mushy pedal can be gotten from soft pads. Sounds crazy but it's true. The rears did sound like they were too tight, but then backed off.


If you intend to bleed, download according to the procedure. You have to hold open the metering valve to bleed the rears. If you pressure bleed, you will never accomplish the task because of the valving.


I hope it all works out and you find your problem, quickly.

Good luck.

 

I agree with you in all fashions, however, those are definitely signs of brake lines needing bleeding. Who knows what these shops take apart to get brakes on or off. There is definitely no reason to have to rebleed for a only a pad swap IF IT WAS DONE RIGHT!!!

But air in the lines will take a hard pedal and transform it to soft then bake to incredibly stiff again because lack of consistent hydraulic pressure. Bleeding the brakes is a 2 person easy job, I would still try this first and then go from there...

But I do agree with everything from the above post if that doesn't work, just wanted to clarify myself!!

 

You're correct. And I am assuming that the pads only, were changed. I'm not saying that air isin't a possibility. It's more unlikely that air is a problem. Air cannot get into a system that has been working previously. If there is a leaky fitting, or broken line somewhere, fluid will exit the system when the brake pedal is applied. I forgot to ask the guy if he took the cover off his mc and checked the fluid level. He could have a leak somewhere and not see it. The rust on the underside will absorb fluid before it gets to the ground.


His mechanics may have removed the calipers to do the pads. Strange things happen in shops now a days.

Good luck.

 

Hey thanks for the responses guys.

I had my brake pads and rotors spun my the mechanic. I took my truck back two days later becuase the brake pedal was very squishy. I waited two days becuase i was trying to see if it was air in my lines.

When i took it back and they adjusted my brakes i noticed a harder pedal and i noticed a substantial vibration when braking and at highway speeds of 70mph....that gradually went away.

over the past few weeks the brakes have gradually become less hard and on friday my pedal went all the way to the floor before i got any response from my brakes and that is when my ABS light came on as well as my Parking bake light.

so my main question is could this be from air in the lines or does it sound more like a master cylinder.

i am leaning towards the master cylinder but could be very wrong.

 

You need to find out if your mechanics opened up the system, that it would require bleeding. And why was your master cylinder replaced 4 years ago? We need some details. You have to check things. Check the vacuum. No offense but this should be entry level stuff to your mechanic. He/she should have checked this if you returned the truck after the brakes were done. I don't know what you have done anyway.lol.


If the vacuum system holds a vacuum with the booster DETACHED, then suspect the booster itself, or it may be as simple as check valves. Again, entry level stuff. If the booster and vacuum system prove to be working fine, the mc problems would be the next diagnosis.

My personal opion here. If you have already replaced a mc, and you will need another one, then I suggest you modify your current brake setup. Sounds like a heavy foot on the brake pedals......lol. Your truck is only vacuum assisted. You may have ruptured a seal in the mc. You get significantly less pressure with a bore seal that is bad. Consider a hydroboost system if you want the ultimate in braking. But hydroboost only works if the rest of the system is in proper working shape. Especially the lines. Hydroboost will give you great pressure to the fronts. Drum brakes are good brakes. Better than disc brakes except for their inability to dissipate heat rapidly.

You have something wrong. Now is the time to do a good inspection of everything. Truck is 10+ years old. I don't know where you live but if you get snow and salted roads, start looking at the brake and fuel lines closely. 10 years is a good run. I only got 9...lol.

Just my 2 cents.......lol. I probably have change coming back!

Good luck.

 

It sounds like the adjustment they performed was they ran your shoes out against the drums (rears - I don't know of ANY other adjustment to perform on our braking system). It also sounds like you've got an out of round drum (or two) and they didn't bother to A) turn them or B) road test your truck when they finished it (or they would have felt the feedback).

I'm still thinking about the pedal to the floor thing but it involves a blown WHEEL cylinder ... how comfortable are you with pulling a drum?

EDIT: Actually ... now that I'm thinking about it ... why should YOU have to mess with it? Didn't you pay THEM to make your brakes work right?

 

Alright, I'm brand new here but this should help and make sense.

1. Rule out the vacuum booster by logic. Ruptured or leaking=hard pedal.

2. Excessive pedal travel= rear brakes mis-adjusted, air in system, fluid loss, bad seal in master cylinder.

3. Dodge wired the abs lamp to come on with brake(parking) lamp with a failure in one brake circuit.
This is controlled by the single wire switch beneath the master cylinder in the proportioning valve.
This switch's job is to indicate to the driver that there is a loss of brake pressure in either the front or back circuit.
If the warning lamp goes out when unplugging this switch, then one circuit has a loss of pressure.

To rule out rear brake adjustment, apply parking brake. If it applies before the pedal hits the floor, odds are the rear adjustment is close enough.

Sounds like fluid loss or cylinder failure to me. Especially if unplugging the proportion valve switch turns off the brake and ABS lamps.

Hope that helps.

Brian