Brakes are bad

Hi and thanks for using 2carpros.com

If the brake pedal is excessively soft, that may be an indication of a problem.Is the brake pedal going to the floor? If so, either you have a leak, bad master cylinder, or an issue with a brake hose. This can be dangerous. Take a look at this link and see if what it describes correlates with your vehicle's symptoms.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/brake-pedal-goes-to-the-floor

Next, I need to know if there is any noise associated with stopping as well as if the steering wheel shakes, or anything you can think of to help me properly identify what is happening.

Take a look through that link and let me know if that is what is happening and also the answers to the questions I listed. Again, anything you can think of that will help diagnose the issue will be helpful.

Take care,
Joe

Welcome back:

Without knowing why the brakes are soft, I can't tell you what to expect. Often times, if you have rear drum brakes, they will not self adjust. As a result, the distance between the brake drum and brake shoe becomes excessive. The result is a soft brake pedal. However, if you pump the brakes a few times, it will take up the excessive play and the pedal will slowly get back to normal.

I am going to provide directions for replacing rear brakes. It shows how to check the drum, brake shoes, self adjuster, and all components.

First, here is a link that shows in general how rear drum brakes are replaced.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-rear-brake-shoes-and-drums

Here are the directions specific to your vehicle. The attached pictures correlate with these directions.

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Brake Shoes

picture 1

Special Tool(s)

Removal and Installation

1. Remove the brake drum.
2. Use the Brake/Clutch/Service Vacuum to remove brake dust and dirt from the brake assemblies.

picture 2

3. NOTE: If new rear brake shoes and linings are being installed, resurface the brake drums to remove glazing and to ensure an equal friction surface from side-to-side. Resurfacing will also correct out-of-round and bell conditions.

Using the special tool, measure the braking surface diameter. If the inside diameter measures more than the maximum specification shown on the outside of the brake drum, install a new brake drum.

picture 3

4. Remove the parking brake cable from the parking brake cable lever.

picture 4

5. Remove the hold-down clips and pins.

picture 5

6. Remove the lower spring.

picture 6

7. Remove the rear brake shoes.
1 Pull the bottom of the brake shoe forward.
2 Release the upper return spring.
- Remove both brake shoes together.

picture 7

8. Remove the self adjuster lever.

picture 8

9. Remove the self adjuster and spring assembly.
Return the self adjuster to the fully seated position.

picture 9

10. Remove the parking brake lever.
1 Remove the horseshoe clip.
2 Remove the parking brake lever.

picture 10

11. Inspect the rear brake shoes for minimum thickness above the backing plate, and install new as necessary.
12. To install, reverse the removal procedure.

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Since there are no brake fluid leaks and you are not low on fluid, my first suspect is the rear brakes or rear brake adjustment. Please understand, not being there to check makes it difficult for me to determine the actual cause. A bad master cylinder can even be the cause. Therefore, I can't tell you if it is dangerous at this point. If you can, check the rear brake adjustment or have the rear brakes cleaned and adjusted to see if that takes care of the problem. A soft pedal can be an indication of problems that could be dangerous. Please be careful.

Let me know if this helps or if you have other questions.

Take care,
Joe

Welcome back:

If it truly is an adjustment issue, you can, but the brakes will not function as they should. You already know that. I would recommend trying to adjust them to see if that takes care of the problem.

Welcome back:
Did you have them checked? Was it adjustment?

Let me know,
Joe

Glad you found the issue. And, yes, something happened. I remember replying to this but there was an additional question that I don't see now. Ugh! I have no idea.

Take care of yourself and if you need help in the future, let us know.

Joe