I noticed tonight while getting on the brakes hard (thank you deer every 15 feet) that the pedal feel is just....well....its borderline scary, not quite there yet but its close.

The car still stops, and the stopping power it had still seems to be there for the most part, but you have to push the pedal down progressively farther to maintain the same power..does that make sense? and if you just push down on the pedal while the car is running it goes down a lot farther than I can remember it going down...and the overall brake feel is just not as solid as it once was.

So far my plans are to check the pad levels, bleed and possibly change the brake fluid....and then go from there, ill also make sure the lines are in good shape.

Any other thoughts? Im thinking if one of those things isnt the problem its probably something more serious(aka expensive) like the master cylinder or something liek that.

sounds like a leaky master cylinder to me.

All;

Please note I have moved this thread back to Gen Chat as it is generally related to a braking issue. Lets be more careful when moving threads.

If any moderator has a question about why this was moved back let me know.

x2 on the master cylinder.
Aren't there also vacuum lines going to the brake booster? Make sure you don't have any vacuum leaks.

Check for leaks everywhere, and if there aren't any it is most likely the master cylinder. It sounds like you have decent pressure though. Mine went a week ago suddenly and I pretty much had no pressure whatsoever.

But don't worry, you can pick up a rebuilt master cylinder at an auto parts store for around $50-60. And changing it is pretty easy. Me and Boost replaced mine last weekend in 30 minutes, not including the time it took the bleed the system clean, but it was not hard at all.

yeah, Im gonna try the master cylinder based on what Ive read here, and heard from other sources.

I bought one a couple days ago, havent put it in yet though, the remanufactured one was 75.99, plus $25 core charge, plus some other stuff...bringing my total tab up to $119....dayum!

But hey at least ill get 25 back and hopefully it will fix it, so I can go back to braking with confidence, it will still stop fast enough to give me a headache though....true story.

wow thats alot...where did you buy it, i guess they charge more because of the ABS...the reman MC for a car like mine with no ABS is only like 43 plus core...lol...scary

Prices will vary greatly on year and make of car. Let'* remember, we are talking Olds in this case.

ABS will not usually have much to do with it as our systems are seperate from the master cylinder.

I bought it from O'reillys, the only local place I have to buy things. I didnt check prices from other parts stores, because I didnt want to have to drive 60 miles just to get the part and save 5 bucks.

Although the guy never asked me, theres supposed to be a different master cylinder if the car is equipped with the JL4 stability control...which mine isnt, thankfully, because the master cylinder for my car equipped with that is DOUBLE the cost of mine, somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 dollars IIRC.

I still havent gotten it installed, my mom needs my car today as she had a flat on her van and doesnt wanna go running all her errands with a donut on the front...I just told her to be careful and give a few extra car links in front of her(which she does to the extreme anyway)...because it can be a little unpredictable at times.

Good luck with the install. Did the MC you bought come with a new reservoir too, and a bleeder kit? The one I got was fairly cheap in part because it was just the cylinder. They had one with a new fluid reservoir and a bleeder kit that was around $25 more.