2004 Chrysler T&C minivan brakes...

[badtlc]

I'm not familiar with these vehicles but drove one recently. It felt like I was getting close to the floor pushing the brake pedal before I was getting good response from the brakes. They were VERY squishy. I wasn't used to this. Is this normal for this vehicle?

The owner says the brakes have always been that way but the van has 150k miles on it. I'm assuming it was a slow change that they just didn't notice and it might be time for a brake fluid flush and bleeding.

 

[javacontour]

If it has rear drums, they could be out of adjustment.

 

[Trav]

+1 Check the rubber brake hoses also.

 

[badtlc]

it is 4 wheel disk brakes. Rotors were just turned and all brake pads have lots of life left. Everything looks fine physically.

 

[dparm]

Brake fluid is probably getting old.

 

[Hokiefyd]

No, that is not normal. It could be a number of things and the aforementioned suggestions are all good.

 

[badtlc]

I'll see if I can get them to get the brake fluid flushed. I doubt they'll be interested since they don't think anything is wrong.

 

[Vikas]

Since we are talking about somebody else's brakes, my sister-in-law's old Accord (circa 1998) had unbelievable strong (and touchy) brakes. Even my brand new Acura could not match the "stop this very instant" braking power of that brakes. Yes, they were sort of binary in operation but had an insane grabbing power and were extremely firm. I wonder if something in the brake booster was causing this behavior or a some combination of the rotor and pad gives this behavior. The car had a recent brake job.