So I was going into a sharp turn at the end of a long straight this past
weekend. I transition my foot from the gas to the brake pedal and
as quickly and smoothly as possible push down the brake pedal....but
what's this, the brake pedal drops very easily to the floor. Ugh Oh!!
So I start to pump the brake and get some brake pressure back. Of
course I overshot the corner but I did get my car slowed down in time
to not plow through a bunch of cones.
I didn't experience any problems during the rest of that run or at
any time after that but I think it's probably a good idea to bleed the
brakes anyway. Does it seem reasonable that the problem is with
boiled/water-soaked fluid? Would I have experienced low pedal
on the rest of my run if that were the case? The other question is
has anyone gravity bled an ABS equipped car? Any reason it
shouldn't work? I have a '99 C5 (OK, so actually the '99 is my wife's
car and the '98 is mine) and don't want to have to ask my wife to sit
in the car and hold down the pedal - she likes autocrossing but I
have to ease her gently into working on the car so it's not a constant
battle when we move to BSP and spend lots of time wrenching on the
car. ;-))))) Besides, the idea of removing the master cylinder cap,
filling up the master cylinder with brake fluid, opening up a bleeder
screw and then sitting back with a beer or two while gravity does
its thing is much more appealing to me.
Thanks,
John "No, not that one" Engstrom
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