Hi all and thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Bought a 2008 tribute v6 non-hybrid a few months ago. Everything has been great up until 3 days ago, I was driving home. (Stop and go, lights, stop signs driving, no highway or speeds above 40 mph.) Right as I was stopping at the last stop sign on my street, it felt like the ABS engaged. Then I pulled up to park, and the brakes were soft. I drive the car around the block to make sure I wasn't going crazy, and sure enough, the brakes were soft at every stop. (The car still stops, it just takes further pedal travel to get it to respond.) So, I took it to the shop to have the brakes bled. They bled the brakes and said I had a bad master cylinder. Ok, replaced master cylinder, bled the brakes again. They said everything was working great, come pick up the car. So, I go to get the car and then they tell me, that the last guy who test drive it, slammed the brakes, the ABS engaged, and the pedal went soft again. So, I'm out a hefty repair bill for the master cylinder and fluid flush, but my problem still remains. Any ideas?

 

Possibilities, 1: Air is trapped in the ABS module. Find some loose gravel and hit the brakes hard enough to engage ABS and see if that improves the pedal. 2: One of the valves in the ABS module is not seating properly after activation. 3: There was still air trapped in the lines after the Master was replaced and the activation of the ABS moved it into the module.

Did they attempt to bleed the brakes again after they found the soft pedal returned? Where you in a situation to activate the ABS the first time?

 

Thank you for the quick response!

1. I will try that the next time I'm in the car in the morning.

I do not believe they bled the brakes again after activating the ABS. They said they were reprogramming it. He told me that if the brakes were still soft, to bring it back in when I had time to bleed the system with a special scanner that they didn't have in the shop while I was there.

I will do that next week if the problem isn't fixed by your suggestion in 1.

They also told me that I needed new pads and rotors on my front brakes. Could that simply be the issue? I'm inclined to believe that if it was the pads/rotors the problem would have come on gradually rather than suddenly.

Thanks again for your input!

 

I just realized I didn't answer your other question about whether I was in a situation for the ABS to engage when the problem initially surfaced. The answer is, maybe? We have had some flooding recently and local brush collection, so there was some debris in the street where I stopped. Leaves and twigs piled up. If that's enough to do it. I didn't brake hard in the debris, just normally for the stop sign.

 

If the caliper was leaking, maybe. Just pads and rotors, doubtful. Reprograming? Special scanner? Interesting. Possibly look on Amazon for some Ionized Pixie Dust to sprinkle on the booster. OK, I'll stop.

 

You've hit the nail on the head with the pixie dust. I'm just at a loss at this point. The car stops when I ask it to, I just have to ask a little earlier than normal. I hope I'm not risking my life and limb (as well as those who share the road with me) by continuing to drive the car this way.

 

Activated the ABS twice this weekend and it doesn't seem to be improving the pedal.

 

Have them bled again, rule out the air pocket.

 

Will do. Thanks for your help.

 

Wow, I'm sorry I never came back to update y'all on this. I went back in to pick up the car and they tell me that the soft pedal is caused by my front brake pads being too low. At this point, I am fed up and tell them to stop working on the car, I pay the bill and leave. I continued driving the car this way for the rest of the week, and ordered some new front brake pads and rotors to have them replaced by a friend that weekend.

They replace those, and the problem remains. Friend hops in again and says he bets it's the back brakes. They hop underneath the car, do some kind of adjustment on the rear brakes and the car has driven fine (in this regard) ever since.

I talked to the original shop who forced me to replace the master cylinder and was refunded in full for that service.

Thanks for y'all's help!