well i drove a TC the other day, and everything was great except the brakes felt really soft. my 05 had ZZP rotors and pads front and rear, but the pedal only moved a little and you had good brakes.

Is it typical with the Brembo's to have more travel in the pedal, like it went about half way down to start to feel solid. I know there is a recall on the fronts anyway, but he said that all the recalls have been fixed.

 

I havent searched bulletins in a while. What's this recall you speak of. Was it raining my the Brembos suck at wet intial braking IMO. Look right in at the pads the are super visible.

 

If anything I'll just swap pads when i buy the car, but the rotors looked new. something about the recall being bad rotors from the factory, not sure though.

 

possibly hawk pads on there. They got no bite.

I have the same pads. Hawk ceramics.

 

dont swap the pads... you really cant get better pads then the ferodo pads the ss/tc comes with

 

The more the pads and rotors wear, the softer the pedal will feel. I don't have any complaints about mine at 22k miles. I'm not sure if we're on the same master cylinder as the SC, but if it is, then I could see the TC having softer pedal feel.

 

hmm, well it can't hurt to take a look at the pads, i know it needs tires anyway so thats the perfect time to check. Just wanted imput if it was normal to have a spongy soft feeling pedal. I'm sure the brakes we're wet, and cold too as the car was just washed.

 

I wouldn't call my pedal feel soft, so much as linear. I personally hate cars that have a huge bite when you barely tap the brakes. I feel the car slow as soon as I hit the pedal, but allows a decent amount of pedal travel to control the brakes while still feeling firm. It's not like it goes from zero to ABS with 1/2" of movement. I have 45k miles, still riding on original front pads and have about 25k on the rears (replaced at 20k under warranty due to the slide-pin issue). By comparison, my old Grand Am had spongy brakes - the pedal traveled almost halfway before the brakes bit at all.

 

My 08 has 9k on it And the bake brakes scrub and the fronts feel spongy also and create a lot of brake dust. I'm talking I'll wash the rims and by the time I get home(5miles) just normal braking when coming to a stop at the light and the rims are covered in brake dust. What years were the recall for?

 

check to see if the parking brake is adjusted. if the handle clicks more then 3-4 clicks, its too loose. the rear brakes and the parking brake system work with the rear caliper piston, if there is too much slack in the parking brake, it takes that much more fluid to cover the distance between the pad and the rotor. does the pedal get a better bite when you pump it by anychance?

 

aha, the parking brake comes way the hell up on this car. even higher than my 05 did, so i'm sure that is whats is causing part of the issue. it's higher than a 45 degree angle for sure.

 

Yes. My parking brake is probably at a 70 degree angle when I pull it before it starts to work. Does anyone agree with me that the parking brake is the cheesiest, lame parking brake ever installed in a car? lol

 

TC definitely has a softer pedal feel compared to some other cars. Stock pads don't have much "bite' to them either. I replaced my front pads and rotors at ~17K miles. Pads were gone (track use), rotors were warped. Pretty sure there has been no recall on TC front brakes. TC brakes should be way better than SC in terms of stopping power, however.

 

Mine do that actually. What does that mean? If I pump the brakes just once, the pedal feel is much improved and the brakes bite hard.

 

Not true.

Brakes are hydraulic. Hydraulics are self adjusting. Pedal travel will remain the same as the pads wear, simply because the caliper piston's apply/release travel remains consistant regardless of pad thickness. Thats one of the major advantages of hydraulic systems used on brakes and clutches.

When pads and rotors become worn, they may becomed glazed over, which requires more effort and slightly longer pedal travel to apply the same amount of braking force. This is not to be confused with the pistons having to travel further, they travel the same distance between brake application and release regardless.

 

Thats not how it works.

As the pads wear, the parking brake travel becomes longer, because the mechanism needs to extend further to press against the rotor.

However, the caliper piston always remains near the contact surface of the rotor for hydraulic brake application, regardless of pad wear.

 

well i'll look at it again later this week, going to the bank Thursday anyhow. either way, minimal issue for what the car is worth.

 

Parking brake on these cars, at least the TC, is self-adjusting. Once it goes beyond a certain point, it should adjust and tighten up. For me it happens every 6 months or so. Over a very long time the cable may stretch, and that can affect how much pull is needed, but at 45k miles mine is in fine shape.

 

sounds like you have a bad rear caliper. I had spongy breaks but if you pumped the breaks the pedal got firm. Eventually led to an issue with the e-brake not holding the car so i took it in a they replaced a caliper and the brakes haven't been better.

 

Did you mash the brakes right before it got spongy? If so you may have a crystallized set of pads. Just get new pads. I crystallized my old ones and any time i got em warm theyd do crappy and feel spongy.

 

I have a 2010 SS/TC with 45k and my e-brake stretch is horrible.

 

Don't mean to thread jack but i got a "svc brake system" message earlier today. Wtf's up w/ my brakes? They seemed fine and there's only 20k on the car.

 

for some odd reason our self adjusters dont tighten up the parking brake slack. so if your brake pedal feels better after pumping and parking brake pulls up higher than 4 clicks, you or your dealer needs to adjust the parking brake to 4 clicks (it is covered under bumper to bumper warranty)

 

There are no self adjusters on the rear brake system. Its a simple cable actuated lever integrated with the caliper piston.

The parking brake may be able to be adjusted, but thats at the front near the handle, not anything to do with the rear calipers.

 

The rear caliper piston is self- adjusting, so yes there is a self-adjuster on the rear brake system. The simple, cable-actuated lever is integrated to a self-adjusting piston. For those adjusting their e-brakes at the base if the handle, make sure the pistons are clicking out as the pads wear. Otherwise, you'll have more piston travel as the pad thickness decreases, causing more e-brake handle travel as well.