Brake pedal to the floor
 

2005 SuperCrew, less than 600 miles. My wife just called me and told me the brake pedal is going to the floor! No brakes...

Yikes, what is going on. Have to leave work to go rescue her, cant wait to see what the poblem is.

Im guessing this isnt a known issue?

This has happened to many 04+ F150 owners that Ive talked to, including myself. My brake pedal would randomly go all the way to the floor with no brakes! Went to the dealer 5 times in order to get it fixed, they finally replaced the entire master cylinder assembly. I would go raise hell with Ford especially if your wife is driving it, Id ask them how it would feel to have their spouse driving a vehicle with no brakes?! But at first they will say that the brakes are normal, but keep on them, they need to fix it.

Thanks for the heads up. NOT GOOD!

Good thing this didnt happen when I was coming down the grapevine with a 5000lb trailer behind last weekend. Is there a TSB on this issue, Ill search...

I dont see any TSB or recalls for this. Isnt this a pretty serious problem? I am having it towed to the dealer tomorrow morning. This has me really disgruntled...

not a common issue but reminds of chevy who had this issue a while back. the piston is allowing fluid to bypass it. a new mc will fix it.

I will tell them a new master cylinder is in order to fix it and see what they say. Is it documented anywhere? It showed no other symptoms, just had no power all of a sudden and to the floor.

Maybe not common, but not confidence inspiring either. I will always assume driving it from now on that I am the guinnea pig for the service department, hoping they fixed it, for good. Im sure Ill get over it but...it sucks right now.


Thanks,

I am in a Cavalier rental car...

The tow truck driver told me he tows 2-3 04-05 F150/week with the exact same problem. Actually had paperwork in his truck from this week.

I told the service advisor I will not take the truck back unless it has had a new master cylinder put in it. He wasnt very responsive... Im letting the service manager and GM at the dealer know the same thing on the phone right now.

Cavaliers suck!

I bet the service advisor said he had never heard of that happening before also.

Just got the call... It is ready to pick up and there is nothing wrong with the brakes.

I told them I am NOT taking the truck back WITHOUT a new master cylinder put in it. She has to "talk to her supervisor" and get back to me.

This looks like it may get ugly. I refuse to let my wife drive it again without it actually being fixed. "There is nothing wrong" aint gonna cut it!

I actually had the master cylinder cap replaced as a fix to this problem. I had to tell the service advisor what it was, after he failed to experience the same symptoms on a road test. I wiped it down first, drove it with him, than showed him the fluid on the outside of the cylinder. It would spew fluid out under very hard braking in the summer months. He ordered a new cap and it's been okay for a while. I noticed the other day that it's starting to leak again, but the brakes are okay. I may ask them to replace the master cylinder at the next service (i'll just repeat the same claim i made when they replaced the cap)

After reading this thread again, it sounds as though I am a Ford hater. I love my truck. Ive had 5 Ford trucks (4 trucks and 1 suv). Ive happily replaced the rotors and pads on all but one of them with aftermarket units (Porterfield) after a few thousand miles. My 04 Rangers brakes are doing surprisingly good at 30k. Never had any warping problems or feel problems on any of them... Yes, Ill be putting them on the new truck at any sign of rotor feedback, or sometime next year.

There is however a serious problem with a brake pedal that hits the floor with 600 miles. My wifes daily driver. The dealer/Ford can nip this in the bud easily in this case. With one trip. Install a new master cylinder, check the whole system for leaks and bleed it. Then Ill feel good about it. Shouldnt be a big deal in my mind.

Have you had this problem yardbird?

Having the rookie service advisor matter-of-factly tell me "its ready to pick up, we didnt find anything wrong :) ", is really puzzling (one of many words I could use here) with a safety item like this.

Could a bad ABS sensor cause something like this? There is no pulsating when the pedal is down, indicating the ABS isnt involved Im guessing.

Sorry to ramble...

Not that it really matters i'm just wondering do yall ever get a firm brake pedal before it was towed off. if not i wonder what ford done to get the pedal back. a good friend of mine has a 04 xlt and his went to the floor and stayed. he said the dealership scratched their heads for awhile. you guessed it a MC fixed it right up.

just me thinking here. if my customer had their truck towed to me because of a break issue and i havent done anything to fix it i dont believe i would be putting that truck back on the road untell i had some answers other than "nothing is wrong".
gregg i hope they resolve this issue very quickly but in the right way.

It was intermittent. It had pedal when they towed it. Just talked to the service manager. They bled it and found some air in the lines this morning. That means they didnt even try to bleed it yesterday before before telling me it was OK... Nice.

What he did tell me was that there is a brand new TSB for spongy brakes on the 2005 F150. He said he would attach it to my paperwork... I didnt see the TSB anywhere I looked so it must be new? Anybody in service out there know this for sure?

They also told me they found one of the inserts from the 7 pin trailer plug stuck in the trucks plug. They thought I may have overheated the rotors and boiled the fluid because the trailer brakes might not have been working. I didnt notice any weird braking when I pulled trailer, it was only like 5 miles to the storage place, flat ground. I cant believe that short distance with an empty trailer could have overheated the system.

Anyway, at least they found something (air in the lines) and did a fix based on the TSB, forget to get that info over the phone though. I am going to go ahead and take it back and try it. The first sign of any other brake oddities it is going back for a new MC.

Greg,
I recall reading something here a while back about the vacuum boost setup on these trucks having a problem. I don't recall specifics but I'm pretty sure I got the big picture correct.

Try searching this form and see what you can find.

edit: I was close...here's the thread I was remembering.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=360402

Here is some reading material about what others have experienced. In my opinion, air just does not suddenly appear in the system without something being wrong. If air was there all along, you would have noticed it right away with a soft spongy pedal.


Links:


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...=brake+failure

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...1&page=1&pp=20