Greetings and salutations to all in the land of the great Bitog!
So I'm coming home tonight from the family farm after a long and somewhat hot day doing farming things. I'm passing through a little town at about 35 MPH when the stop light at an intersection turns red. I apply the brake. The pedal goes practically to the floor. "Yikes" say I to myself, "I ain't got no brakes!"
I manage to stop and see an "Auto Zone" about a block away up the road. When the light turns green, I creep up the road and pull into the parking lot. Again, hardly any brakes. I assume I must be low on fluid and since it's minutes away from closing time, I run inside and buy a bottle of brake fluid.
Back out in the parking lot under a light, I pop the hood with brake fluid bottle in hand ready to top off and head home. When I remove the cap, I see that there is plenty of brake fluid already in the car's braking system with no way to add more.
"Hummmmmmm . . . I'm 40 miles from home, 35 miles from the farm, what to do?"
With great caution, I hop back it the car and ease back on the road. Thankfully traffic is light and I drive max 40 MPH all the way home always stopping well in advance of stop signs and lights and giving plenty of room to all vehicles in front of me.
What I noticed as I got closer to home, the brakes started working better. By the time I pulled in my yard, they were almost as good as they were before things went south on the trip home.
What would cause this strange experience? Master cylinder going bad? Brake booster not boosting? Air trapped in the lines?
I installed new front pads about a year ago and have had no problems and the back brakes were done about 30,000 miles ago.
I'm looking for ideas and suggestions on where I should start before I take the ever faithful "Bluesmobile" back out on the highway.
BTW - said vehicle is a 1993 Ford Taurus GL with the 3.0 V-6 and an automatic tranny.
Thanks in advance
So I'm coming home tonight from the family farm after a long and somewhat hot day doing farming things. I'm passing through a little town at about 35 MPH when the stop light at an intersection turns red. I apply the brake. The pedal goes practically to the floor. "Yikes" say I to myself, "I ain't got no brakes!"
I manage to stop and see an "Auto Zone" about a block away up the road. When the light turns green, I creep up the road and pull into the parking lot. Again, hardly any brakes. I assume I must be low on fluid and since it's minutes away from closing time, I run inside and buy a bottle of brake fluid.
Back out in the parking lot under a light, I pop the hood with brake fluid bottle in hand ready to top off and head home. When I remove the cap, I see that there is plenty of brake fluid already in the car's braking system with no way to add more.
"Hummmmmmm . . . I'm 40 miles from home, 35 miles from the farm, what to do?"
With great caution, I hop back it the car and ease back on the road. Thankfully traffic is light and I drive max 40 MPH all the way home always stopping well in advance of stop signs and lights and giving plenty of room to all vehicles in front of me.
What I noticed as I got closer to home, the brakes started working better. By the time I pulled in my yard, they were almost as good as they were before things went south on the trip home.
What would cause this strange experience? Master cylinder going bad? Brake booster not boosting? Air trapped in the lines?
I installed new front pads about a year ago and have had no problems and the back brakes were done about 30,000 miles ago.
I'm looking for ideas and suggestions on where I should start before I take the ever faithful "Bluesmobile" back out on the highway.
BTW - said vehicle is a 1993 Ford Taurus GL with the 3.0 V-6 and an automatic tranny.
Thanks in advance