Ford Explorer Brakes Slow responding

Not much information to go on here, but if the antilock and brake warning lamps are not indicating any problems then it is probably something else. Maybe (probably) you are feeling warped rotors or brake drums. You didn't mention the mileage since your last brake service. I think you are doing the correct thing to check all the brakes to see what condition they are in before you start worrying about the antilock system. Be sure to check for rotor run out .. Probably would be a good idea to replace the fluid if it has never been done. I always advocate doing a thorough brake job, so check everything while you are at it. Better safe than sorry.

drums off the rear brakes check to see how worn the shoes are . back in the day a brake adjustment would do the trick but theses days no one does because of the automatic adjusters but i still do it.

I had an old BMW that used to do the exact same thing; the problem turned out to be a bad hydraulic accumulator. Apparently instead of using engine vacuum the power boost was provided by the power steering pump. don't know if this is helpful or not.

nate

I think you need to explain that better. Do you feel an actual pulsing or are you saying that it is like when you you are on ice and the brakes just don't do much, but no pulsing. When the brakes do start to grab does the pedal feel any different at that point (does it sink farther to the floor, stop pulsing, or no difference).

-jim

I have never had this happen on a car with anti-lock brakes, so I don't know about the pulsing part unless it turns out to be a warped rotor, but on my toyota truck what happened was: The master cylinder had leaked into the brake booster, which corroded the diagphram in there, so the brake booster no longer worked. The loss of fluid was barely noticable, but it sure was scary trying to stop!!

It doesn't seem like this should happen on a car so new, and what I described may have nothing to do with your problem, but the delay part is what I am focusing on here. It may be that the anti-lock system wants to engage bacause you are depressing the pedal farther than normal? Maybe the booster just gave up without fluid leaking into it.... You didn't say how far you had to push the pedal down, though, so??????

loren

ed wrote:

It may be that the anti-lock system

Anti lock brake engagment has nothing to do with how far the pedal goes down.

Anti lock kicks in when the sensors detect that the weels are spinning at different speeds, the idea being one has "locked up".

Mark