Real Fiero Tech

crossposting this from the Fiero list as nobody seems to be offering any opinions... :cussing:

So I was backing down the drive this morning and when I hit the brakes, the pedal went to the floor, the brake light came on, and I was able to get the fronts to lock and stop me before really bad things happened.

As the light came on when the front brakes worked I'm thinking this means no fluid pressure to the rears, i. e. there's a leak back there. Sound right? I'm trying to rule out the master cylinder before tearing in to everything. : /

I have approx 4K miles on a set of Fiero Store braided stainless lines but I haven't had the time to pull my wheels off yet. I suspect one of the rears developed a leak or similar. I was careful to install them such that there were no sharp bends but that put them between rim and E-brake bits. The past few days it has been soft in the morning but firmed up by the time I reached the road.

Glad it didn't do this on the road! I just completed a drive from Texas to Tennessee!

Red 5spd Formula
Trot, the unstoppable, fox... = |

yup, check for leaks first, if no leaks are present have a buddy press the pedal and verify that the calipers are infact clamping down. But to me it sounds like plain 'ol fluid loss

yup fluid loss. I am thinking that a hardline could have broke too. Fill up your master cylinder and then press on the brake pedal. Then look under the car to see where you see it dripping. That should point to the trouble area.

Same thing happened to my car recently. A hardline broke. it drained out one night as it was a low spot but I usually park in the grass so I didnt' know where it was leaking at.

SO I filled up the master and parked on the concrete. I pumped the pedal a few times and I could then see fluid dripping out at the rear of the car. Hardline cracked and leaked fluid out.

I have actually seen bad motor mounts give way to the alternator pulley/fan slicing through the hardline on the trunk bulhead on a V6, worth a look if no leaks are found at first

$1 on it being a bad Master Cyl.

I'm just wondering, do you have the parking brake hooked up? If you don't the rear brakes may be out of adjustment and causing the symptoms you are noticing.

Dirty Sanchez wrote:I'm just wondering, do you have the parking brake hooked up? If you don't the rear brakes may be out of adjustment and causing the symptoms you are noticing.

E-brake works fine. I even did the manual adjustment (piston pry and screw cycle) when I replaced the flex lines.

I hope it's not a hard line... = O

Red 5spd Formula
Trot, the prayin', fox...

Holy crap... $155 for the whole set of preforms?!

That isn't too terribly shabby!

You better believe I bookmarked it. :thumbleft:

Trot, the greatful, fox...

$180 for stainless... and it even comes with the factory style spring wrap. that's very very nice.

Stupidly simple fixes FTW!!!

All my worries were caused by the caliper-end flare nut coming loose. No rubbing on the cables, no other leakage. Repositioned cable, tightened the hell out of it, and bled the lines. Test drive revealed braking on par with previous!

Where do I get good pads for an '88? These Fiero Store units won't lock under all the power I can put to them and I think the car should be able to stop faster...

Thanks for the ideas!

Red 5spd Formula (./~ on the road again ./~ )
Trot, the decelerative, fox...