Ford F-150 - 1997-2003 :: Brakes Hard When Motor Off Soft When On
Jan 29, 2017
My son just bought a 97 F150 with the back brakes blocked off. The front brakes had about full pedal when the was on. We changed the front calipers and brake pads. Bled them came back with great brakes (with back brakes blocked).
Then we found out the back calipers was none so we bought all new parts for both back brakes, found some leaks in the rear lines fixed them. Now we bled the brakes with the motor off till no air came out. Solid pedal. Then turned on the motor and the pedal goes down 3/4 of the way now easy.
Stops on snow good no tire sliding. Turn off the motor has solid pedal again.
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I just joined as I bought my '97 F-150 5.4 4X4 about 3 months ago. The dealer gave me a 6 month warranty but hasn't honored it at all and I've had one problem after another. That's another story though but right now I'm just trying to fix the important issues. The problem at hand are my brakes.
I was noticing a couple days ago (maybe I never noticed it that much as it was a new vehicle to me) that when I apply the brakes it sounds like a bicycle pump and the pedal travels nearly all the way down. It doesn't hit the firewall but I'd probably guess it has 3 more inches or less until it bottoms out. The hissing only occurs as the pedal travels and stops when the brake pedal isn't moving.
Now I'm not sure if the hissing sound is normal as I replaced the brake booster (from the junkyard though) and the new one still hisses when I apply brakes. The brakes seem to work okay, could be more sensitive it's just the pedal feels soft until it almost bottoms out like I stated before and the the brakes grab a little bit harder. What could it be?
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I have this truck (in signature below) that I have not driven for ~3 years. As I am starting to drive it I am noticing I need to put A LOT of pressure on my brake pedal to get the brakes to work. They stop the truck and the pedal doesn't feel soft as if there is air in the line but it feels as if I apply a lot of pressure and there isn't a lot of grab.
While it might be possible, I don't think I have any type of glaze or coating on my brakes that would cause this. 95% of those 3 years, the truck was inside.
I wonder if it feels as if the truck is hard to stop because of the additional power I have coming from this new motor?
Is there any type of part I can replace in the brake booster to adjust the pedal? Or brake booster. Maybe that is going bad?
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I just purchased a 04 GX 470 the braking system seems to have a lot of travel and are very sponge. I live in MO and it pasted the state inspection. I check fluid and it is good. It has the electronic braking and 4 wheel disk. Is this normal or should I seek Lexis dealer service. I also have a GS430 and the breaks are right there.
Added info: I do not feel any pulsating in the pedal but there is a pulsation in the SUV when it coming to a stop. Feels as if the rotors may need to be turned but the pulsation is not hard it is smooth.
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I have a 2007 Odyssey. Honda already recalled it once for brake issues. It has 44000 miles and we already changed brake pads once. Now again beakes are filling soft and have to press hard. what should I do?
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I have a 1997 F250LD 4WD. I was driving and came to a stop light. I hit the brakes and the pedal was rock hard with what seemed to be very little travel. I pushed hard to get to a stop and the abs activated and I came to a slow stop. This has happened about 3 times over the last 1000 miles of driving. I see no ABS or Engine lights. Most of the time the brakes are normal. Pads are fine, fluid is fine. Brake booster seems to work fine, pedal is not mushy or hard to press other than the 3 or so times this has happened. Once this happens I can let off the brake and everything is normal. I have not found any vacuum leaks.
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So the other day I had someone change lanes and slam on the binders right in front of me which caused me to slam on mine. Luckily no one got hit. Now my brakes feel different. Sometimes the pedal feels nice a firm other times it pushes in 2-3" before starting to brake. The fluid level has not changed in the resevoir and the hydroboost appears to be working fine. The power steering is still operating as before. I have checked the calipers and none are leaking.
My suspect is the master cylinder but was wondering if the symptoms are common with the master cylinder failing? I'm thinking internal o-ring has failed due to the near accident event. I'm going to do power steering flush just because I never have. Is there anything that would display these symptoms that I could check before buying the master cylinder?
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I have a 97 F250 that is having reoccurring brake issues, It has an intermittent hard pedal with little to no brakes when it occurs. It will stop but you are standing on the pedal with both feet. I have replaced the booster, master cylinder, and the vacuum pump in the past trying to isolate the issue and still had the problem. On this year model the abs ids only on the rear correct???? if it is shouldn't it only be affecting the rear brakes? Since this truck has a dual reservoir MC the front should still work?
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I have a 98 F150 4x4 Super Cab Long Bed that still has the original shocks which are in need of replacing. What shocks I should get that would provide a soft ride?
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I have a 2004 Ford Expedition and today on the freeway I had to step on the brakes pretty hard to avoid an accident. After pressing, the pedal resistance became really soft and the brakes worked, but were very sensitive (a lot of pedal movement to brake). I had this happen some time ago and I did a complete system flush and no problems since then, but it has to do with how hard I hit the brakes. What could be wrong????? BTW - I never noticed the anti-lock brake pedal pulse at all during this event. I'm not even sure it is working at this point. No dash lights to indicate an error of any sort.
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I changed front rotors and bled brakes. They were hard for a few days and went soft. No leak in fluid (MC reservoir is still full). No leak in fluid near any wheel. Could I need to bench bleed the master cylinder?
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I have a 2007 Ford Fusion (I4). Recently the brake pedal goes extremely soft after the anti-lock brake system engages. It can still brake, but I have to press the pedal almost to touching the floor. It will stay soft a while (at least 20 min, probably longer), but I found that if I pump them hard a few times (like while at a red light) it then returns to normal.
My mechanic can't figure out why it doesn't immediately return to normal after the ABS engages, and he's not sure what to replace to fix it. I don't have the cash right now to just go replacing lots of stuff, hoping it might work.
(He even mentioned the possibility of removing the ABS fuse to prevent the ABS from kicking in and triggering the problem. Though wouldn't that be a step backward, safety-wise? I always heard that ABS is much more effective than pumping brakes manually...)
What's causing this and how to fix it?
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So a few week back I noticed my brakes were getting soft. Soft meaning that when braking for any distance, I would hear a kind of "pressure release, squeaking" sound coming from the pedal, and the pedal would sometimes go to the floor and the ABS would kick in. Let me tell ya, its a pretty crappy feeling when your brakes aren't doing what their supposed to! So, I replaced the pads all the way around, replaced the master cylinder (bench primed). I took it out for a drive, and it did the same thing. So thinking maybe the fluid is bad, I flushed new fluid through the lines. Took it for a drive, and it felt good right away, the pedal firmed up a bit, and then it did did it again.
Just so I give as much info as possible, the rotors are looking pretty rough and going to be replaced soon.
So, my question[s] are; What is the next step in identifying the problem? Is there a chance the new master cylinder is bad? Could worn rotors cause the caliper to max out and not apply enough pressure? Even though the calipers seemed fine while replacing the pads, could one or more be bad? If so, how do I know?
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I have a 79 f150. I changed two brake lines and master cylinder and bleed,and more bleed,but still very soft all most to floor? wheel cylinders look good.
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I have 98 f150 with 4.6 starter went so I put a new one on wich was a hassle and it tries to turn but just wont as if the motor is seized. I had been hear a loud howling sound from what I think is the ac unit and the ac line burst after trying to start. Would a bearing or something with the AC be enough to stop the engine from turning over? Or could it maybe be a wire connection problem? To me it sounds like a starter trying to start a seized motor but I cant see that my motor would be out it only has 190 000km and the oil looks good. but we couldn't turn the motor over with a ratchet? The truck had been getting gutless. I am stuck...
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Got a buddy with a 98 white f150 with the 5.4 motor. It will start up and idle fine but if you try to drive it it has no power what so ever. What it could be?
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I'm looking for information and possible photo location for the blower motor resistor. My truck has climate control. I've looked under the dash on the passenger side and behind the glove box door and I've been unable to spot the location. Do I have to remove the plastic panel behind the glove box?
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How to remove the blower motor switch on my 99 F150 without breaking anything.
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What do I need to do to replace the drivers side window motor in my 97 f150? Do you need special tools? or just pull the panel loose from the door replace and motor and push the panel back on. Or is there plastic clips that are going to break off?
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I have 97 f150 x-cab 4.6 auto 4x4. I'm gettin ready to pull motor & trans to rebuild both. I was wondering if I can pull both while still bolted together without having to remove the cab??? And what else will needed to be removed.
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1997 Ford F-150 4.2L V6... I got into my truck yesterday and went to turn it on. The motor cranked half way then quit. Now everyone time I attempt to turn it on all I hear is a click and nothing else. A friend of mine who is pretty good with cars took a look at it with me. He tested my starter with a volt meter and said everything seems fine. We proceeded and checked all fuses, non of which we found are blown.
We then focused on the starter solenoid. We were able to get the truck running by arcing the 2 lower big terminals. I purchased a new solenoid thinking that was the problem, however replacing it solved nothing. Same problem is still present.
I have now arc the terminals to get the truck started 2-3 times in order to get to a shop. They spent all day looking things over and are pointing the problem to a bad starter relay. (i thought the starter relay was actually the same thing as the starter solenoid) Anyways they told us they have looked over all the diagrams they have access to and cannot locate the location of the starter relay. (maybe becasue its the solenoid?..)
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