Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting freakin old people

I think something maybe/may not be wrong with my Tour. I was stuck behind some old fart doing 10 mpg down a mountain road(roughly .8 mile). I had to ride the brakes the entire way down. About half way my petal started to pulse. Then something in the engine bay started to clunk/tink. And the pulse could be felt inside the car, as in shaking. The clunk/tink noise continued after I got off the road. Could this be something with the master cyclinder? And why are my brakes pulsing? Could it be because of overheating? Afterwards I got onto the highway(smart or dumb as it was) I hit 75 mph and then let the breaks slow the car down to about 15. Don't worry no one else was around. But the brakes didn't vibrate/pulse one bit... Any info? Cause if there is something wrong with the braking system it would be nice to know. i.e. no brakes + daily drives on turns and mount = Tour off roading

Any info would be good

ABS? What model? MTX?

98 SE Duratec ATX

First off, did you gear down at all?

Once many moons ago I was traveling from Sheridan, Wyo. over the mountains to Powell, Wyo. in a dodge Polara. When on the top you have the choice of the regular route or the scenic route. Well I took the scenic (not a smart move) and when I got to the down hill part it was switchback after switchback. Needless to say by the time I reached the bottom I had virtually no brakes. A couple miles of straight and level and they came back, but the first time I hit after coming down freaked me out.

No I never did downshift the automatic. I was to busy being pissed about this guy driving at 10 mph and trying to watch my ass so I don't get rearended. It literally has about 9 blind turns and average speed is 35 down the hill. So going 10mph is a serious hazard.

I would guess that you got the brakes really hot. Some rotors will go out of shape when they are really hot and pulsate but be ok when they cool down. Look at the rotors and see if there is some micro cracking or checking on the friction face.

I'll go check for some cracks right now. I did drive today I had no pulsing breaks but I went down the mountain the other way(there 2 ways down that aren't more then .2 miles difference). I think that my rotors might have overheated and then deformed. Would new/higher quality rotors fix this? Also is there a way to test the back end? I wonder if maybe the drums aren't taking as much of the brake force as they should. If someone could post a general method to check my brakes I would be thankful

I did just check the front rotors. The look pretty nice to me. I did notice that there seems to be a flaky layer on the inner driver side rotor(this being on the top of corse and not on the inner side).