On April 10th, I had a lift installed on my truck.

A 4.5" ICON, or better known as DONAHOE.

The lift is awesome, the ride is superb, and the look is killer.

However, about a week after the lift, I began to notice a sight decrease in my brake pedal's firmness. Almost to the point where I began to consider low pads. I only have 50K on the truck so that was ruled out right away upon visual inspection....

I then decided to take it to my dealer and possibly point out a hydro boost pump failure or a leaking master cylinder. Neither were a possibility upon a thorough investigation. Finally the tech nailed the issue! The brake lines, or hoses... rubber hoses.

The rubber hoses that are extended down which then go through a bracket and continue on to the caliper piston had too much of a bend! A 90 degree bend at that! It was restricting flow and causing the firmness of the pedal to decrease enough to where I could notice a difference and causing an annoyance.

So as a warning to all you folks who lift their truck and experience a similar issue, opt to this option to remedy the issue.

I will be notifying both the shop and ICON to express this and possibly work out a solution for future customers.

 

I'm skeptical. First off, a restriction in the hose would make the pedal MORE firm. But even a 90 degree bend in a hose should probably be OK, you're not really trying to move a lot of fluid quickly.

Are these longer hoses, that were added along with the lift? If so, I would suspect one of two things (or both):

1.) The increased length of the hoses allows expansion over a larger area when the pedal is pressed, along with perhaps a more "pliant" replacement hose.

2.) The tech who installed the brake lines didn't bleed them completely.

 

Well, I'm not so sure a restriction in the hose would make it seem more firm. Let's say that at the point of the restriction the line is completely sealed off. Then the result would be a hard line. But introduce a small leak, and the brake pedal would move down slowly with applied pressure, as the OP described. I'm with King on this one.

Now if the brakes are spongy, then I agree they're most likely not bled properly.

 

With the larger tires and wheels, it is going to take more to stop the truck...you are using rubber hoses that stretch and will give more than braided hoses. I would switch out to steel braided hoses. They can stand up to the heat and pressure better.

 

OK, I just re-read his post twice, and I didn't see anything about the pedal moving down slowly. He said decreased firmness, which to me means spongy.

Now, to the OP, did taking the 90 degree bends out of the line fix the problem, or did you have to replace the hoses and/or bleed the brakes?

 

The Icon (DR) 4.5" system does not replace the OE brake lines. The system only includes small relocation brackets which slightly rotate the OE lower brake line brackets to which you are referring inward to provide clearance for wider tires. The 90 degree bends in the lines are present in stock form and any qualified Ford tech should know this.

The 4.5" system does not typically require bleeding of the brakes, however it is possible that a brake line may have been damaged during the installation. However this typically results in pulling to one side or the other under braking. I would suggest you take the truck back to the installer before you find yourself in the middle of a finger pointing match.

 

A couple points:

One, yes to who ever mentioned that the brackets come as is from factory. I feel like an idiot for listening to another idiot tell me that the bend on the hose was result of spongy brakes. He will be corrected tomorrow when I follow up on the issue at the dealer.

Upon pondering and reading various thoughts shared here, I am lead to believe that perhaps the system was not bled properly and that is the cause for the spongy pedal.

My next step is to address this with the shop who installed and make the correct this issue.

I cannot imagine towing my 13K 5th wheel down grades with these brakes. I have a hard enough time bringing the truck to a stop at times, imagine with added weight on the truck?

Either way, I am very unpleased with this and with the tech. He will hear me tomorrow....

Thanks everyone

 

Well, just make sure regardless who is at fault that your brakes are working good in the end... thats one part you need working lol. My 78 bronco has crappy brakes, and after having to put it into a ditch at about 45MPH to avoid flattening a little hatchback (metro I think it was) that decided to stop on a highway on ramp (long story), well I decided I am going to upgrade the whole brake system before its on the road again. I had the pedal to the floor and could tell I was going to need... well about a hundred more feet to stop... so of into the mud it went (was all muddy since they were working on widining the roads). The piled up dirt and mud infront of my locked up tires was about up to my bumper when it finally stopped.

 

Well appearantly everything seems to be working just fine and the spongy feel on the brake pedal is a result of the lift and bigger tires. I'm having a hard time swallowing that but now I'm worried about something else ........

The tires are rubbing on the brakes lines!

I've moved the brake lines away from the tire about a good 1 1/2" and I'm still rubbing! This is really worrying me because eventually i'm going to tear into the brake hose!

Has this been a known issue for these lifts??

Anyone else experience this with larger tires??

Thoughts, inputs???

 

I'm confused....


Did the spongy brakes start on April 10th once the lift was installed? Or a month later when you posted?

Are you running stock wheels?

 

Larger tires means more moving mass to stop...I still think better calipers and steel braided lines.

 

If it's still on stock wheels with 35" BFGs.....braking shouldn't have suffered severely.

Even on 38s my 2001 wasn't spongy (I've always had SS braided brake lines on it though). Now with the Power Slot rotors and Hawk pads it stops really good (still stock calipers).

 

I did not notice the spongy brakes til after +/- 15 days after.

They are 35s on stock rims.

I'm not worried about the braking anymore even though it hasn't improved.

I am worried about the tires rubbing the brake hoses.

I am looking for folks out there with similar lifts to get their take on it...

 

A pic of the lines would help.

You're positive the tire is rubbing on the line and not some other part, like the fenders/bumpers etc...

If you're pulling a large trailer, upgrade your fluid, your lines and your pads. Your truck will stop much, much better.

 

I am positive.

Here are some pictures.

Passenger side:




Here you can just see how much it has rubbed into the house. This one worries me the most.



Driver side: