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I bough this van about a year ago. Its my main work vehicle so i need it to be reliable. Its in fairly good condition and has has 5.7 V-8 with 147k miles on it, and automatic transmission.
Anyways…..
The van has weird pulsating feel when slowing down. Feels like i am pumping the brake very softly as i slow down, it also pulls to the right a little when braking. The pulsing is there even if i try to stop FAST or a long SLOW stop. Nothing changed when i got new front brake pads. Could the pulsating be from a warped rotor or something with the rear drum brakes? Its been like that since i bought the van over a year ago. Van has ABS if that could be doing something?Sometime in May I want to get new tires, rims, shocks, front coil springs, rear brake shoes, maybe new front ROTORS, and maybe a new master cylinder for the brake system depending on what u guys recommend.
Here is a little adventure i had about a month ago with the braking system!!!
A few weeks ago I was slowing down to a stop sign (driving normal) applied the brakes and only got about 25% stopping power … felt weird the peddle went down all the way van was barely slowing down.. anyway it was on a little back road no other cars so i got out and checked the lines and braking system for problems… nothing seemed bad and no leaking fluids. There was a weird smell though. So i got back in and drove a few feet pumping the brake and of course its working PERFECT. van stops on a dime.
Now about a week later i noticed the my master cylinder seems to be covered in brake fluid and slowly leaking.. so i clean it all off and check the level of the reservoir… of course its not LOW ON FLUID>>> So its been about a month and everything is working fine still and no low fluids. Master cylinder is still nice and shiny too. I check the brake system all the time now. (cant have that failing on me). Don’t know what it could be or was??? Any ideas?I also have a weird leak with my radiator… only leaks if i top it off the coolant reservoir, there seems to be a hole near the very top of the radiator somewhere… I used a laser heat gun to read the temps of the fluid and engine, normal- temps. (is it bad to drive around with a hole in the radiator even though its not causing problems??
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The brake pulsation definitely sounds like a warped rotor(s).
The brake fluid on yer master could have just been the cap being loose, especially since you haven’t experienced the problem again.
As for your coolant leak, here’s a video on diagnosing coolant leaks, which includes pressure testing the system, which is where I would start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUzOTnsWImI
Good luck man.
Replaced the pads on my 1996 Neon last year and had the same pulsating problem. I did not replace or resurface the old disc, just put the pads on. Went back and replaced the disc and put the new pads back on and the pulsating went away. Now I either have the disc resurfaced or put new one on when I replace the pads.
The brake pulsation is probably rotors as suggested. You may have a caliper issue that may be the root cause of the warped rotor so you might want to remove them and make sure that both pistons compress normally and make sure that the caliper can slide on it’s mounts freely. I’m at a loss on the lack of braking perhaps you had a problem with the brakes overheating or something and they cooled enough for them to work again after you sat for a bit, this may also be the result of a sticking caliper.
Any leaks in the cooling system should be addressed as low coolant can introduce air into the system which can cause overheats.
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