Hoping for some light on this. 2003 X with v10 4x4. Bought it in June this year with 200k on it. Had a very firm pedal and needed pads. Found out when I took the rear apart it also needed parking brake and backing plates. Changed the rear flexible hoses too. Caliper pistons moved freely all 4 corners. Cleaned and greased the slide pins. Pedal felt fine and is stopped good. Took a trip thru the a hilly stretch in NH, pedal kept getting firmer. Brakes (seemed more the fronts) started dragging to the point going downhill I would have to give it gas to maintain speed. Pulled over at the bottom of the hill let it sit and cool off. Brakes were smoking a bit. Headed home after a half hour. No issues on the ride home, pedal felt normalish a little firmer, but no dragging or smoking. Take it apart, the rubber boots on the front calipers are melted and almost no pad left. Change the front flex hoses, loaded calipers and new rotors. Bled the pi$$ out of the whole system,front and rear, so there's fresh fluid. It's fine for a few weeks and starts doing it again, then goes away for a week. Starts dragging again and a leaking rear axle seal, change the seal bleed that caliper again. Drive it a day or 2 then same RR that dragged before I bled it and left front are dragging bad enough so have to give it enough gas to drop down into 2nd gear on a flat straight away to maintain speed.

Nothing under the dash is interfering with the brake pedal. If i pull up on the pedal it doesn't really move. When I check the booster after it sits over night there is still vacuum.

Sorry for the novel.

Thoughts? TIA

 

Had you not already changed the flexible lines that kinda rules out my first thought. Were those OEM parts or aftermarket and what brand?

I'm assuming you have no ABS codes showing in the OBD-II system----if that's okay I'd suspect the master cylinder. It's odd all this crops up after your pad renewal so I wonder if you've missed something during that process?

 

Hoses are local parts store brand. Callahan front calipers and pads.

I was thinking master too until yesterday when RR and left front acted up at the same time. Going to bled, check piston movement and slides on all 4 corners again.

Haven't had any abs lights will check codes.

Thanks

 

rear rotors are warped from the dragging. getting new ones. Had to clean and grease the slides again I'm assUming the heat from dragging cooked it off as they were sticky. Bled another qt of fluid thru all 4 corners.

See how this does when I go to work.

 

for s&g's I went to a dirt road and got the abs to activate a few times. Didn't change the way the pedal felt. Finally replaced the rear rotors. Kept the old pads as they weren't that old. Bled all 4 corners again to make sure there was no fluid that got hot left in the system. Brakes feel normal now. I know the warped rotors were not helping but I fail to see how the rotors caused a hard pedal. Maybe activating the abs and bleeding the brakes for the 4th time did it. I'm pleased its better but would like to know for sure.

 

There is a process called "service bleed" where the ABS block is activated during the bleeding process which properly expels all air from the system---if that step had not been performed it might have caused your hard pedal issue.

After several attempts it could be trapped air was finally expelled and you have a return to normal pedal feel.

Not sure that's the case here but maybe?

 

Had to send my wife's fusion to the dealership after I changed a caliper because the abs wouldn't bled.

Still don't see how the brake pedal felt hard. Would think it would be mushy.

 

Resurrecting this thread again.

Brakes started dragging again. Has been fine for months. Way home it started doing it again, long flat stretch was in 3rd gear 2500 rpms to keep 50 mph. Got home rear brakes were too hot to touch.

To restate, fronts new pads, rotors, calipers and brackets and hoses. Rears new backing plates, pads, rotors, calipers and brackets and all 3 hoses. Have bled about a gallon of fluid thru.

REALLY need some input on this.TIA

 

Re-resurrecting this thread.

F'ing rear brakes started dragging again, RR was smoking. Same scenario, been fine for awhile, pedal is hard at the top, feels like the bottom half of an emergency stop. Long flat road I'm on the gas in third gear like I have 2 tons of pellets behind me going up a hill.



Anyone?

 

Some people will drill the calipers but anytime I've ran into this I take about .030 off the pins diameter. If you take too much it puts stress on the pad retaining springs and they will start breaking.

 

Think I solved it, although the issues I found are not what I would think cause the problems I had.

Replaced the master cylinder and brake booster. Disassembled the MC, (it was leaking out the back into the BB) the rear piston had orange goo and chunks of something in it. The BB had 16+ oz of brake fluid in the vacuum side. Also had the ABS light pop on, the front left sensor wire had melted to the knuckle, replaced it. Everything installed and bled, 2 days so far so good.

 

2000 F350 SCLB 4x4 V-10 215K, has had a hard pedal for a while. Have changed rubber lines, multiple pin greasing, a couple calipers & rotors. Good vacuum even after sitting a couple days. I stuck a washer behind the master cylinder flange and hard pedal gone. Hmmm, first time the master cylinder bolts have been touched. I am going to hook a Genisis scanner up and bleed the ABS and power bleed the entire system.