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What the heck happened to my brakes?!

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Old Oct 20, 2002
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SoNiCcIvIc's Avatar
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What the heck happened to my brakes?!

Okay, here's the story.

Me and my friend were installing my rear anti sway bar and when we were done, he was gonna show me how to tighten up the e-brake since the rear wheels were off. After I got that lesson, I drove home and took the long way to test out the rear anti sway bar. As I come closer to home, I realize that whenever I brake I have to use more force on the pedal. In fact, sometimes I had to floor the brake pedal just so it COULD begin stopping the car. This was incredibly weird.

When I get home, I smell the most disgusting smell coming from my car. Kinda like something that burned. I know there are only a few things that can eminate a burning scent coming from the car under normal conditions and that is 1) the clutch... but I'm no newbie at driving my car. 2) the tires, though the scent smelled like it was coming from the front of the car, it didn't smell like burnt rubber, it smelled worse, and 3) my e-brake which I did not drive while it was engaged.

I call up my friend and he tells me to check some of the things on my car. Since I part my car on a slanted driveway (facing up) he told me to put the car in neutral (not started) and take the e-brake off. Woop-dee-doo... here's the problem... the rear brakes were tightened too much because the car did not roll back smoothly. So I call my other friend who helped me earlier and he comes over and we try to fix the problem.

In the end, the right wheel got loosened enough but the left wheel spins not so smoothly. I will fix it this morning because that smell was hideous.

So here are my questions -

1) When my rear brakes were tightened too much, WHY did my front brakes stop responding so well? I had to press the brake down twice for it to work properly. No one I knew could seem to figure this out. I was almost convinced I needed new brakes or something.

2) I know when I brought my car into the dealer they tighten up the e-brake for me. Though it's really nothing too special, how exactly can you do it?
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Old Oct 20, 2002
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You probably heated up the brakes so much that there's air in your system now. Try bleed the brakes and see what happens.

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Old Oct 21, 2002
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[hr]Originally posted by: Firefly
You probably heated up the brakes so much that there's air in your system now. Try bleed the brakes and see what happens.[hr]
Alright. I just spent a lot of time today trying to figure out how to tighten the e-brake. To say the least, it's now so loose I could probably push the car with the e-brake on. Eh...

The performance of the brakes were tested and at normal speeds, it seems fine. It's still acting a bit strange though at low speeds as it seems I still have to press on the brake a lil' too hard. I'll try draining the lines tomorrow and retightening the e-brake properly, thanks.
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