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Question:

what is wrong with my brakes?!?

hello. i have a 96 subaru legacy bout about 2 months ago. The brakes have been fine except for the last few weeks. They feel a LITTLE bit spongier, maybe they go down a LITTTTTLE bit more than what they used to but that could just be paranoia (my last car had a terrible brake system). But just a few times in the past week when I come to a stop sign i try to stop and the brake pedal feels like I‘m pushing on a brick they‘re REALLY hard and I can‘t press it down I have to force all my weight on the pedal and it finally goes down. Then for the rest of the day it‘ll be fine idk if it has to do with being cold outside and the car sitting for a bit, or if it‘s something internally wrong with the car. Any details, prices, things that MAY be wrong. will be appreciated!!! thank you

Answer:

befor you waste your money on a bunch of parts you dont need, check the brake fluied. It should be clean and clear or a very light yellow tint to it. If its black, you brake system need serviced. If the brake pads and shoes are worn then there will be less fluied inthe brake resivure. A lot of times people for get that the rubber brake lines on the front brakes can start to collapse on the inside and look just fine on the out side. They can cause problems like you have mentioned. The vacume brake booster very very very rairly goes bad. If the master cyclinder is leaking then, then you should replace the booster because the brake fluied will destroy the rubber diaphram inside the booster. But the problems your having dosent sound like you have a leak.
Yeah, i've got heard of this situation. It happens hardly ever. you have a leprechaun caught on your wheel nicely. What your gonna ought to do is get some cans of trojan horse spray in case that's nonetheless alive and a spatula. If that's nonetheless alive, spray it until it stops shifting. as quickly as that's not shifting, use the spatula to scrap it off of the wheel nicely. based upon city ordinances, you the two ought to burn it, bury it above the aquifer in a water-proof container, or have animal administration come out and do away with it. be careful, an injured leprechaun could be very risky.
This is a very common problem with subaru's. When you first step on the brakes the brake pads are pressed up against the rotor (the big circular metal object inside the wheel) via the brake caliper. This creates massive amounts of heat and friction which then stop the vehicle. But for the brake pads to move against the rotor the surfaces in which the brake pads slide against have to be clear of all debris and greased up properly. These surfaces commonly get rusted up and almost lock the brake pad in position preventing it from moving to stop the car. You could try to take the pads of the brake caliper bracket and clean them all up( a file works best) and re-lube everything and that should get you on your way, or if you have a rear drum brake setup a simple cleaning and adjusting may only be necessary. If you bring the car to a shop for a regular brake job they would either replace or machine the rotor, and put on a new set of brake pads along with cleaning and greasing all the necessary parts. This could run you anywhere from 200-1000 dollars depending on what parts are needed, if any, and whether the front brakes or rear brakes need to be replaced. If the car has a 4 wheel disc brake setup, or rear drum brakes, the most important part here is to fix this immediately because brakes CAN fail suddenly, or even worse slowly fail and when u need them the most they won't be there for you. I hope that this was help full and if you have any more questions let me know i might be able to further help you out.
Why you would not want a front brake is beyond me. Ever heard of inertia? The front brakes provide almost all of the stopping power.
Riding a motorcycle without a front brake is insanely dangerous. Forget those show bikes with jockey shifts and suicide clutches that you see on TV and in magazines. Ther standard controls on a motorcycle have evolved in the places where we find them today over a century. They work. They are there for a reason.

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