well, my first "issue" with the car.....

last night, as i am driving home from work. i put my foot on the brake and i noticed the E Brake light flickered on, then off. when i came to a complete stop, again it came on.... however this time it stayed on! this morning when i got in and fired it up, again the light was on. E Brake is not on....i checked and checked and checked. no smell of brakes burning or anything.... whats the dealio??

DR

 

Have you checked your fluid? I believe that the brake light also is a warning indicator for the main system as well as an indicator for the e-brake. It may just be telling you that your fluid level is low or that there is some other issue at hand.

 

Check the level in the MC.

 

uhmmm, without sounding like a complete idiot.... should i just take it the garage and have my mechanic do it? i'm not the most knowedgeable....which i hope to become somewhat here....just havent got there yet.

i live just north of pittsburgh,pa! anyone out there?

 

Uhhmmm ... actually if the fluid level in MC dropped low enough to actuate the warning switch/light, then he needs to do a full bleed. The switch is closed when there is an imbalance of fluid pressure between the front and rear. Then to reset the switch, you basically just push the pedal as hard as you can until you feel a *bump* in the pedal.

 

Are you saying that you don't know how to check your brake fluid, so you'd rather take it to a mechanic? Why take it to a mechanic if you haven't tried anything yet? What have you tried?

 

well i am sure i could check the brake fluid level. open up the brake fluid container and check to see how much is in it. doesnt seem tooo hard! i havent done it yet bc i am at work now. i'l lsneak out later this afternoon

 

Ask around your co workers and find a car guy and ask him to go out with you. That's the way to start learning. You may need a blade screw driver to pry that retainer over. If no coworkers to help just run by a garage and ask if they can help you. If the level is low but not past the bottom, you may be able to just top it up. But there could be a leak some where to find. It would not be that bad to take it to your mechanic and ask him to show you how he checks it.

 

It's in your owner's manual. It could be as simple as a faulty switch under the handle, but it's meant to indicate some type of failure in the overall system which needs to be addressed.

 

Several things . . . If the light came on as a result of you pressing on the brake, it means that you have a partial brake system failure. There is a valve between the front and rear systems that has a switch that will toggle if the pressure is too different between the systems. This switch is what turns on the BRAKE light and means that one of the front or rear systems is not working as well as the other one (or at all). Drive with *EXTREME* caution or preferably not at all until you correct the problem (I almost nailed someone when this happened to me as I didn't know it was an indication of a brake system failure and thought the switch in the handle had shorted). I doubt it is your fluid level in your master cylinder, but if it is, you probably have larger issues. The fluid level shouldn't go down so significantly that this problem occurs. My first two hunches would be that you either have a faulty master cylinder, or more likely, need to replace/rebuild your calipers. I would start with an inspection of the calipers for leaks. You should see *NO* fluid around the dust boots on the calipers, if you do, it's time to replace/rebuild. There is probably some way to test the master cylinder, but I can't think of it and usually just try replacing it as it doesn't cost too much if you do it yourself. There are several other potential causes, but these are the ones that were the major issues/headache on my car.

If you do not feel comfortable working on these things yourself, I would be very choosy about your mechanic or at least the parts they use to correct the problem. I went through bad rebuilds of both the master cylinder and calipers from several different local parts houses. I just thought I was a moron mechanic (partly true) because I couldn't fix my own brake problems. It turns out that the two rebuilt calipers I bought from Napa were junk. I took them apart and found that the cylinder bores had significant pitting even though they had been rebuilt. I'd recommend gettings stainless steel sleeved calipers from someone like Vette Brakes or Zip. I got a set from Zip and the cylinders all looked (visually) great. I didn't measure them or anything, but I can say that they were far better than what Napa sold me for more than twice the amount of money.

Problems with calipers can also be compounded on these cars as the stock configuration is to have springs behind the pistons. This causes the pistons to always push the pad against the rotor. This isn't a big deal in an ideal world were everything is perfect, but in the real world many times there is a significant enough amount of runout that it causes the pistons to pump in and out. This has been attributed (by others on the forum, I cannot confirm it myself, but believe it is probably true) to pumping air into your braking system. The common solution to this (rather than correcting the real problem, which I am also guilty of on my car) is to remove the springs from your calipers after getting rebuilt ones or rebuilding your own. Some people also shim the rotors to remove as much runout as possible. I've heard mixed reviews of this myself and cannot say one way or the other what is best, but I did do it to 3 of my wheels (I got side tracked before I got to the 4th. . . Doh!)...

Another part of diagnosing the problem is to simply try bleading the brakes and see if any air bubbles come out. It could also be that your system needs to be flushed/refilled with new fluid. Brake fluid absorbs water and this causes the boiling point to lower significantly if enough water is absorbed over time. If your fluid boils, it can introduce air into the system and reduce your braking.

 

ok, so i had a "car guy" here at work look at it. popped the brake fluid container lid off, it was a little low. probably low enough to trigger the light....

so i go get some brake fluid (dot 3) as i am pulling outta the parking lot the light goes off! and the brakes arent nearly as sponge-y! HAHAHA

P.S. (i still plan to put some fluid in it today.)

 

You should still bleed all 4 corners. Not to mention figure out where the fluid leaked out.