I went to the skyline drive in Virginia last weekend, it’s a very long and twisty mountain road….was going up and downhill constantly, I was only going about 35~40mph but after about 30minutes my brake felt really spongy, out of curiosity I slow down to about 30mph and jammed on the brake, my car took significantly longer (like about 5~7 seconds) to come to a complete stop, tried it again and yanked the handbrake...same crap...took forever to stop and couldn’t get the wheels to lock up either. I’d pulled over immediately and as soon as I got out of the car both front brakes were smoking very bad...and stink, I checked under the hood and didn’t lose any brake fluid, the fluid wasn’t hot either…only lukewarm. I didn’t want to let the smoking pads sit on the rotor like that so I jumped right back into the car and drove at 15mph for like 10minutes to cool them off, it was a little better afterward but ever since I came back from that mountain trip my brake doesn’t work as good as it used to anymore. So, exactly what did I cooked? The pads or the rotors? I replaced ALL brake pads 2 months ago with the Autozone Duralast, and also flushed the brake fluid, I have a 1996 GXE and the rotors are the stocker that have never been replaced before (10 years old). I ordered a set of front Brembo blank rotors and some Hawk HPS pads from tirerack last night, and plan on doing another fluid flush….what else do you think is wrong with my brake? Is it possible that my brake booster pump going bad? and how can I test it?

 

Cliff notes please.

 

you cooked the fluid. not the brakes. and the resevoir may have been lukewarm, but the fluid in the hose was boiling literally. there is no circulation of fluid so the fact that the heat was transferred that far up tells you how hot it really got. do a fluid flush and use a higher grade brake fluid. dot 4 or dot 5.1 as they have a much higher boiling point. may also want to try better pads that work well when hot. Hawk HPS or the EBC's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOT_4

 

You probably glazed your rotors and pads from all the heat.

 

It sounds like you cooked your pads. A bad brake booster would have made the pedal really firm, like it gets when the engine is off and you pump it a few times. I boil my fluid more often than I like to admit, but the symtoms go away as soon as everything cools off.

When you smoke a pad, the surface overheats and glazes over, causing the loss of friction. Just to get yourself driving again, pull the pads and remove the glaze with a wire brush or some sandpaper.

Long term, the hawk pads will do really well. I wouldn't mess with the rotors unless they are worn beyond spec or warped (shaking under braking). If you expect to see really heavy braking again spend some money on some high boiling point fluid, motul makes some good stuff.

 

......... take them off get some sand paper and fix them

 

I'm going with glazed, the boiled fluid feeling goes away after awhile.

 

boiled fluid doesnt go away. once it has done this the fluid is no good anymore.