Brakes are driving me nuts

[kappy]

Hello all,
have a 2001 camry le. wifes car. had it into 2 shops, I normally work on th brakes myself, cannot figure this one out, and getting too old he he, when we push on the brakes, u really have to push hard, I have bled them, new calipers in the back.. the guys at the shop says they are fine, another friend I know, said replace the front brake hoses the short ones to the calipers, he said they get plugged with crap a lot.. any suggestions, these brakes are not right, pushing so hard, roters pads r fine. her sister has the same car, and the brakes are night and day.. her sisters r great , this car is like they are not power brakes, oh also the error code is P0446 again, 1 year ago I replaced that solenoid evap canister was the same code,, any idea's with that thanks for any help

[fenixus]

check the caliper slide pins (or anchor/guide pins), if they are frozen bad then it will seem like you had to use extra force to apply brakes even if pads are fine.

resurfacing the rotors (and sanding the glaze off the pads a bit) should help a lot too.

lastly, someone should check the brake booster, stiff and hard brake pedal could be an indication of booster not being air tight (vacuum leak) or having other trouble.

[ghettosled]

if it's difficult to press the brake pedal, there is either a problem with the brake booster or quite possible the rubber line leading to the booster that supplies the vacuum to assist the power brakes. check the rubber hose first and since it's only a couple dollars per foot of hose, just replace it to ensure there aren't any cracks or leaks.

if it still persists, it might be the booster in general.

[fenixus]

sometimes a combination of grooved rotor, glazed pads and frozen slide pins can cause the same/similar feeling just like the booster went bad. had this problem on wife's car, but booster passed air-tightness check and the other one I forgot for what it passed too.

eventually it came up that resurfacing rotors, sanding pads and re-greasing slide pins (were locked frozen) recovered the car from that hard to press brake pedal. but it was rather hard pressing to make it stop than stiff pedal in general. car also used to travel a long way before it could finally make the stop.

[JohnGD]

Check the brake booster and see if it works. For example, repeatedly apply brakes with the engine off to use up the vacuum. The pedal should rise gradually with each application and feel hard. With the pedal depressed, start the engine. Does the pedal go down?

Another common cause for hard pedal as mentioned are glazed pads and rotors. If so use Akebono ProAct ceramic pads and Centric C-Tek or Premium (powder coated hubs).

Also make sure the anchor pins slide freely. If they stick it will cause the pads to rub against the rotor, heat up, and glaze over. Then you'll be back to square one.

[kappy]

ok thanks for all the tips, I was swaying towards the booster too, the guys at the 2 repair shops, just most likely checked that the pads and rotors are ok, I had the pin probles in the back brakes replaced the whole caliper on one side, the other greased the pins, I know the front brakes are used the most for stopping, think I will replace the hoses and the calipers sand the glaze, check the pins then bleed, take it from there. where is the booster located.. very good advice you guys.

[bolink654]

Brake booster is the large round drum type thing (usually black in color) on the firewall, drivers side... right behind the place you pour the brake fluid in (master cylinder/brake fluid reservoir)

DIY Master Cylinder replacement (1mz-fe / others similar) *PICS* - picture #14 in that thread

[belrancho]

I have a 99 camry V6 and just replaced the power brake booster. The car was hard to stop and it was flashing a code (do not remember the number) indicating that the left bank was running lean. You would really notice it from a panic stop.

Since the failure rate of the brake booster is much less than 1%, I purchased a used one from a junk yard.

My car is a v6 with 4-wheel ABS, but the booster is the same as a standard 4 cyl without ABS, so it was easy to find. To test it, get a vacuum pump with a guage and hook it to the port for the line coming from the engine. You have to pump for a long time to build vacuum, but if you get vacuum, then the booster is probably not bad. The replacement would build vacuum, but the old one would not. he car now stops like normal and no code.