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Handbrake and Brakes feel spongy after hard driving 

 

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 Post subject: Handbrake and Brakes feel spongy after hard driving
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 2:08 am 
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Age: 35

Posts: 13

Joined: 2nd Mar 2009

Ride: Ford Falcon AUIII SR

Location: Blacktown
NSW, Australia

Lately when driving my AUIII in a spirited manner, I have noticed that the brake peddle seems to feel a little sponge and when I go to park have noticed that the handbrake is not as affective and has to be pulled up more than normal to get it to work. I have driven the car sedately and pushed it a bit harder on separate occasions a few times to confirm what was happening. Has anyone come across this before or may know what is causing it? I presume a possible vacuum leak and if that is the case is there any common places I should be checking for leaks?

Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated?
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 Post subject: Re: Handbrake and Brakes feel spongy after hard driving
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 9:50 pm 
Parts Gopher
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Age: 54

Posts: 92

Joined: 8th Apr 2012

Ride: EA Falcon S 30th Anniversary

Location: Brisbane
QLD, Australia

Handbrake symptom has nothing to do with vacuum. I would suggest most AU cars have ordinary brakes but my first suggestion is to check pads and flush fluid properly to ensure no air or water is in the fluid. My previous AU2 had brakes that felt very ordinary with any heat and I put in new pads, rotors and quality fluid and it was very good after that.

 

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 Post subject: Re: Handbrake and Brakes feel spongy after hard driving
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 3:13 pm 
Getting Side Ways
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Joined: 1st Apr 2005

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Ride: EF XR6 Wagon, AU2 XR6 VCT

Power: 148 rwkw

Location: Auckland
New Zealand

That is a classic symptom of moisture in the brake fluid. When was your brake fluid last flushed and changed?

When the fluid behind the brake pistons gets above 100C from repeated or heavy braking, the moisture in it turns to steam. Steam compresses, but water doesn't. A single ml of water becomes 1.6 litres of steam, so it doesn't take much moisture to turn your hydraulic brakes into pneumatic (air) brakes.

Don't know why your handbrake should go spongy, as it uses a separate mini-drum and shoes. Unless you are ripping the e-brake to provoke drifts :twisted:

 

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 Post subject: Re: Handbrake and Brakes feel spongy after hard driving
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:45 pm 
Getting Side Ways
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Ride: Envi EF

Location: Grafton
NSW, Australia

{USERNAME} wrote:
That is a classic symptom of moisture in the brake fluid. When was your brake fluid last flushed and changed?

When the fluid behind the brake pistons gets above 100C from repeated or heavy braking, the moisture in it turns to steam. Steam compresses, but water doesn't. A single ml of water becomes 1.6 litres of steam, so it doesn't take much moisture to turn your hydraulic brakes into pneumatic (air) brakes.

Don't know why your handbrake should go spongy, as it uses a separate mini-drum and shoes. Unless you are ripping the e-brake to provoke drifts :twisted:


Where the f**k did you come up with 1.6L of steam from 1ml of water?????

Brakes will be spongy because they are hot, and ford brakes are s**t. Same with the park brake, the entire rotor will be hot so the park brake will take more effort.

 

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 Post subject: Re: Handbrake and Brakes feel spongy after hard driving
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 6:09 pm 
Getting Side Ways
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Posts: 890

Joined: 1st Apr 2005

Gallery: 4 images

Ride: EF XR6 Wagon, AU2 XR6 VCT

Power: 148 rwkw

Location: Auckland
New Zealand

Ratio of liquid water to steam at the same temperature is 1600:1. So, 1ml of water makes 1600ml (1.6L) of steam.

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

 

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95 EF XR6 wagon, 17" FTRs, DBA rotors, KYB/Koni, AU bottom end, ported EF head, backcut valves, SS Inductions, Territory intake, 10.2 CR, Auckland 1258 cam, vernier gear, PH4480 headers, no cat, Tickford 2.5", 2800rpm stall, J3 chip

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 Post subject: Re: Handbrake and Brakes feel spongy after hard driving
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 10:35 pm 
Getting Side Ways
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Age: 35

Posts: 4316

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Ride: Envi EF

Location: Grafton
NSW, Australia

1ml of water will not equal 1.6L of steam in your brake system lol.
More pressure = higher boiling point = less volume of steam = denser steam.
Like I said, falcons have s**t brakes, you need to deal with that.

 

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