Whats wrong with my brakes- garage doesnt know

[Ben.]

Anyone know what could be wrong with my brakes?

- steering wheel shake under heavy/downhill braking

- when you press the pedal it feels spongy & have to keep reapplying the brakes

i booked into a garage today who are apparantly a 'brake specialist' and they couldnt find anything wrong with them, i have a report saying the breaks are completely fine

its a 2002 focus btw

anyone shed any light please?

Ben

 

[Dave..]

If they're spongy, that sounds like water, or air in the system?

 

[fishcake]

Steering shake under heavy braking sounds like it could be warped discs,and spongy pedal either air in your brake system,like already pointed out above,or a faulty master cylinder,fliud leaking past the seals,so a combination of faults,but its always difficult to diagnose faults without looking at the car,and driving it,but always start with the cheapest option 1st.
So if it was me I would bleed the brakes,then change the front disc's ,and if the bleeding the brakes did not cure the spongy pedal,I would then look at the master cylinder.

 

[Daniel]

Sounds like warped discs and air in the fluid.

Just replace the whole caboodle. Discs/pads/fluid with motorfactor stuff. Should be pretty cheap.

 

[Ben.]

ok cheers for the advise

the thing is the garage have checked it today, all pads, discs are fine, they even took it on a long drive and they said it was fine?

i might just book it into another garage as i dont trust myself messing around with the brakes

 

[MikeB]

my mums focus has quite a spongy pedal, and a few i have worked on also have this but the brakes work fine though. had any work done on the brakes?
however did they try the discs on a brake rolling road which could indicate if a disc is warped or distorted.

 

[fishcake]

Like mikeb07 says,it realy needs to go on a brake tester to test if the disc's are warped,or use a dial indicator gauge to check the disc run out,just a run down the road for a brake specialist is not good enough,you might be best taking it to another garage and tell them what you need checking,good luck.

 

[mgoode180566]

dont compare the feel of the brakes on a Focus to those on a RS. To be honest the brakes on the Renault are quite exceptional for road use.

 

[Tom84]

check the wheel bearing as this can cause the hub to sit at an angle, then when you pump the brake the caliper pulls it straight again give you the spongy feeling, had it happen on my old corsa