Soft brakes

[Jamie R]

I was having a drive today and my brakes suddenly went weird. some of the time when I put my foot on the brake pedal, it would have a lot of distance to travel then it would work right at the bottom. Then I would lift off the pedal and put it back down and it would be okay. On the way back from my journey, it seemed to be okay... Does anyone know what this might be? There's plenty of brake fluid.

P.s. the brake pedal sometimes hisses a bit when I brake hard or if I am stationery... Not sure if this is relevant (or a problem)

 

[pollyp]

could be:

• trapped air in fluid or
  
• one of the flexible brake hoses damaged or
  
• the brake pad/shoes collapsed or
  
• there's a leak (hold brake pressure and see if the pedal keeps dropping slowly) or
• the rear drum brake self adjuster is well outa alignment, allowing the shoes to retract too much so when you apply brakes, more fluid is required to push the shoes all the way back out onto the drums hence excessive pedal travel.