Do you find your brake pedal to be hard?

[cutlass supreme FE3]

Ever since I purchased my Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme International in 1988. I have thought the harder brake pedal was normal for the car. But after driving a few other brands such as VW, Honda, Toyota and Ford I found it to be harder than these.

Anyone else find their brake pedal is hard? The brake booster is functioning and no leaks.

[IsaacHayes]

Mine is really soft compared to other cars... Other way around LOL

[cutlass supreme FE3]

Mine is really soft compared to other cars... Other way around LOL

how can you measure brake pedal compression?

[Joseph Upson]

Ever since I purchased my Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme International in 1988. I have thought the harder brake pedal was normal for the car. But after driving a few other brands such as VW, Honda, Toyota and Ford I found it to be harder than these.

Anyone else find their brake pedal is hard? The brake booster is functioning and no leaks.

To get a more accurate assessment you need to compare your braking to another of the same kind of car since braking characteristics are defined by the manufacturer for each model.

Brake upgrade is a big subject on the Fiero forum and thanks to a thread I'm going to link to about brake function, I realized some of my thinking about mastercylinder function was backwards as well as why the 1972 corvette brake mastercylinder works better on the Fiero than its stock part (the rear piston is smaller).

http://www.teamscr.com/motorsports/tech-articles/34-braking-systemsin-plain-english.html

The following link is an excellent source in helping with retrofit upgrades such as the various rotors and caliper combos some Fiero owners have used to up their brake rotors from the paltry ~9 inch rotors to as much as 14". You can search related vehicles and look at the specs for the mastercylinder and rotors and compare them to those on your car. That's how I found out the difference between the 72 vette MC vs. the Fiero MC. The S10 booster has also been used on the fiero to further enhance stopping ability. Some of the guys that have performed these upgrades have claimed to be able to stop on a dime and give you change noting that their braking ability is just phenominal. If you've ever driven a Fiero and needed to stop in a hurry you might realize the need for improvement.

http://www.autoitoolbox.com/Raybestos/Categories.aspx

[cutlass supreme FE3]

To get a more accurate assessment you need to compare your braking to another of the same kind of car since braking characteristics are defined by the manufacturer for each model.

Brake upgrade is a big subject on the Fiero forum and thanks to a thread I'm going to link to about brake function, I realized some of my thinking about mastercylinder function was backwards as well as why the 1972 corvette brake mastercylinder works better on the Fiero than its stock part (the rear piston is smaller).

http://www.teamscr.com/motorsports/tech-articles/34-braking-systemsin-plain-english.html

The following link is an excellent source in helping with retrofit upgrades such as the various rotors and caliper combos some Fiero owners have used to up their brake rotors from the paltry ~9 inch rotors to as much as 14". You can search related vehicles and look at the specs for the mastercylinder and rotors and compare them to those on your car. That's how I found out the difference between the 72 vette MC vs. the Fiero MC. The S10 booster has also been used on the fiero to further enhance stopping ability. Some of the guys that have performed these upgrades have claimed to be able to stop on a dime and give you change noting that their braking ability is just phenominal. If you've ever driven a Fiero and needed to stop in a hurry you might realize the need for improvement.

http://www.autoitoolbox.com/Raybestos/Categories.aspx

I'm wondering what brake master cylinders members are running?

I would like to upgrade mines to get a much sensitive and not hard brake pedal.

[z34man]

my pedal was hard on my monte till replaced my brake booster hose it went soft and was losing power thru there

[jmgtp]

Mine takes nearly two feet to push!

I have 2 things working against me. One is the not great vacuum at idle due to my cam timing and the other is my custom intake manifold. I think the fitting for the hose is too small so the booster isn't seeing as much vacuum as it could be. What is the size of the inside diameter of the stock booster vacuum hose? The inside diameter of the hose I'm using is if I had to guess is 5/16" maybe a hair larger. It is fuel injection hose and I'm pretty sure it isn't collapsing under vacuum. I think I might upgrade the manifold to accept a larger hose.

[mmltml]

yeah i agree with most of the people on here...my montes brakes have always felt squishier when compared to other cars, but i've gotten used to it