Driving today with carnal_c30 today
and suddenly we smelled something... like a burning
plasticky type smell.. hard to describe

anyway very quickly i noticed that my brakes
travelled lower to the floor than before
the braking seemed fine, but the brake pedal had
to be stepped on lower to engage the brakes

i went back, looked at the master cylinder,
all the brake lines, all the individual brakes
didn't see any leaks...

ya think its time to replace the master cylinder?
its time to anyway, right? i got like 165K on my baby..
gonna change out my rears, bleed, and change out the MC
any other suggestions?

 

If you do all that and it doesn't take care of the problem then I don't really know what to tell ya...
If you can, you may want to check the calipars and make sure that they weren't locked up. They may need to be lubed. Try disassembling them and checking out the insides. Oh, and I'm not sure about that MC needing to be changed regularly @ 165K, maybe Matt could tell you. Good luck, brakes are important and not good when they're troublesome.

 

true that, i think brakes, tires, and headlights are things
nobody should skimp on .... if it needs to be fixed, FIX IT
dont cheap out or you'll eat it on the freeway

 

I heard that! I just ate it yesterday morning...
Smashed into the rear end of a 02 Saturn.

 

ouch, i hope you're ok
thats why i want to get my car fixed so that doesnt
happen to me... just finished a whole lot of bodywork,
i dont want to ruin the perfect looking car yet

 

I would definitely check your calipers. Drive the car for a few minutes and feel the temperature of each wheel with your hand. If one of your calipers is locked up, the wheel will be unusually hot. You'll feel that loss of brake pressure if this has happened, so it may be what's going on with your car.

 

what were you doing prior to it doing this? were you driving REALLY hard on it?

if so, then that's normal brake fade.. the pads will be very mushy for a few hours until the cool off and regain their correct composition and performance..

what kind of pads are you using? rotors? fluid?

step #1 is to bleed the fluid and then see how the car acts afterwards.

when you drive really hard on a car with basically stock brakes (rotors, calipers), you can expect this to happen unless you're running really good pads- porterfield, EBC, or Axxis. OEM pads and anything you can buy at the parts store will all fade and smell like your car's on fire after a few hard stops. OEM are pretty decent, but the parts store stuff is crap.

 

Could just be that you need to flush the brake system. If it hasn't been done n 165K miles it probably has moisture and other crap in it that is causeing the fluid to overheat too quickly. Doing that could safe you some money and time instead of replacing the hardware. O rhti scould just be the right excuse to upgrade the brakes

 

took everything apart, it looks like maybe there was
something wrong with the rear driver side caliper

the pads are cracked, and the parking brake stopped
working... gonna take it all apart on monday and replace
pads/rotors and then rebleed the system... i might
even just replace the MC for kicks

btw, i'm running axxis mm's on brembo blanks
i'm guessing the rear caliper seized and overheated
the system.. hopefully the car will be alright

 

common problem... no fun, but it is common.
when you put everything together, make sure you grease the slider pins well and that the boots properly seal the water out when you're done..

you can buy a rebuild kit from nissan for about $15. it'll do both rear calipers.

 

true, i forgot about that rebuild kit
i guess ill call up the nissan dealer
and order one.. any idea whats in the kit, matt?

 

new seals and boots all around, and a few different packs of grease.. and instructions.

if the slider pins are dead, corroded, rusted, or bent, buy new ones. they're not too $.