My brakes work well enough while going straight. However, when I am sharply turning the car and braking at the same time (like when I’m pulling into a parking space), the brakes don’t work. This is potentially dangerous for the pedestrians/other cars near me when I’m parking (but no accidents yet). A quick brake check by my mechanic while the car was in for something else showed nothing out of the ordinary in there. It’s a 1995 Chevy Beretta.
Questions: Has anyone else had this problem? What is causing it? How is it fixed? Is this something that a tinkering amateur can do, or should I go to a professional.
Please explain what “don’t work” means. Does the pedal go to the floor? Does the pedal get very hard? Does something else happen?
In any event, I think you need to immediately and carefully get to a different mechanic. You don’t mess around with bad brakes.
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Edit: Never mind. Somehow got steering and brakes mixed up.
By don’t work, I mean pedal goes to the floor with very little resistance.
You mentioned the failing steering rack as a possible problem. I don’t have any personal knowledge one way or the other, but I did just google “symptoms of failing steering rack” and none of the sources I found said anything about the brakes. I’m somewhat skeptical, but I will ask the mechanic to check that when I take it in tomorrow.
I also googled my problem with the brakes and I didn’t find anything about that either.
Does anyone else have any different ideas? Or can anyone confirm the steering rack theory?
Loose wheel bearing ?
One of my guys leaned over my counter to read this…and said to check that the wheel bearing is not wobbling or loose. that looseness pushes on the caliper and causes wierdness with the piston.
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My daughter had a '95 Beretta and I remember the antilock system was pretty crude with no pressure-producing motor, just on-off modulation of the applied brake pressure. I’d start with the antilock brake actuator somehow bleeding off pressure near full steering lock.
I gotta go with Ken Green on this one. Loose wheel bearing. The wobble pushes the pistons back and the pedal travel goes very long to actually get the pads to touch the rotor.
I’d add one more possibility, the ABS modulator. I think these cars had ABS standard. It uses an ABS with 3 electric motors to apply the brakes when an ABS signal is seen. Is there a yellow ABS light glowing on the dash? If so, you’ve got an ABS problem for certain.
Have this checked VERY SOON by a professional with the ability to read the OBD-1 signals for the car as well as the ABS system. Either bearings or ABS, this problem could cause a crash.
I have the same issues with my 2006 ford ranger.
I already changed the master cylinder 3 times,
Also got The ABS module bypassed, new calipers, brake lines but none of these have solved the issue, my theory is that something hits the calipers while turning and doesn’t give enough time for pistons to work properly.
Please can anyone help?
Hello Juan Mateo, im having same problem with my ranger 2008. Can you advise me how to fix it please