Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting problem in the brake system

Ok, some history :
Bought a 98 SVT w/ 100,000 on it.
Sold it for a 98 SVT w/ 36,000.

This is my wife's car so I don't drive it too much.
She has complained about poor braking almost since we bought it. Last week I figured new pads were in order.

Compared the new to old and found not a big change in thickness. Some, but not much. So I need your help here.

What could be causing poor braking?
I didn't bleed the system. I know I probably should.
Is there a Stainless line I could install in place of the stock brake hose? IIRC someone had installed these recently.

Did FORD change the brake system in the midst of production?

When you mash down on the pedal, there is some squeek/noise
when you reach the max pressure that can be put on it...

Please help!

If you have air in the system the pedal will feel sort of squishy and you'll probably be able to push the pedal to the floor pretty easily. You should be able to 'pump' the pedal to get a good grab. From the description, I might suspect the wrong pads, incorrect installation, or maybe some oil on, or in the pads.

Try testing the back brakes for the basics- From a 10-15 MPH coast down a remote road, yank up on the Ebrake and see if the rear brakes are quiet, and capable of locking up the rear tires if you pull hard enough. Squeeking or grinding with the ebrake means trouble with the rear brakes.

For the fronts, I would pull the calipers and totally inspect the front system. Stainless lines are nice, but you should get acceptable braking from the stock lines if everything else is OK. The retaining springs are tricky to get back on correctly and can cause problems when put on wrong. The SVT pads are different in different years and the cutover time is a little bit of a mystery from what I've read. Check out the BAT catalog for more background on this.

Originally posted by 98SVT100:

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Compared the new to old and found not a big change in thickness. Some, but not much. So I need your help here.

What could be causing poor braking?

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Sounds to me like the front caliper springs are not installed correctly. I did have this problem a few months ago, when a friend and I changed my front brakes/rotors. I was cleaning the place up when he reinstalled both springs, and he did it wrong.

First stop sign we encountered was horrible - I went right thru! We checked everything, pads, lines, bleeded the system (again), but still no front brakes.

I searched on the old forums to try to find out what was happening, and it was almost unanimous: springs installed the wrong way.

The springs are pressing together the caliper itself and the carrier. It's sadly easy to place them incorrectly... There are some "loops" at each end of the spring, and pins that get into holes in the caliper. The loops should get behind (towards the rear of the car) the carrier, bringing the two parts together.

If I had a digital camera I could post a picture of the spring correctly installed.. There is a small picture in the Haynes manual, showing the upper part of the spring only though..

I installed the bottom pin in the corresponding hole first, by placing the spring almost horizontally, and got the bottom loop behind the carrier. Then I raised the spring to get the second loop behind the carrier at the top, and placed the second pin in the hole using pliers - it's easy to get your fingers hurt by the spring..

After reinstalling both springs correctly, I had front brakes again.. (and some brakes!!)

Hope this helps...

Thanks for the quick reply!

The pedal feels fine. Not squishy or soft.
She had a maxima before with brakes that needed bleeding.
Those you could tell! The only way I can describe is by saying for example the car should brake from 60-0 in 150ft, but is doing it in 200ft. The pedal only feels different at the end/bottom of hard pushing . Is this normal? I know the pads are correct (I was given the wrong ones first!) and they were installed correctly.
The fluid looked nasty. I'm thinking about getting those SS lines and new fluid. If that doesn't work maybe larger rotors and calipers!

Any more replies are appreciated.

The old pads could have been glazed and therefore not gripping. Previous owner could have been to hard on them at break-in. If you didn't sand or turn the rotors when you put in the new pads they could do the same thing again or at least take a long time to seat.