well i have a 1988 camaro and the brakes act very wierd. sometimes they just dont work, the pedel wont move. other times the pedel will go all the way down, but not engage. other times the pedel is pressed and the brakes engage, but they dont seem to catch, as if wore or something. now these problems occor at all temps, at all speeds, anytime it wants basicly. there is no sign what so ever of damage or leaking, i have checked everything, it appears to be perfect, but it most deffently is not. whats wrong with them? and a side note it was a 2.8 with 700r4 when they where doing this, im bout to drop in a 350 with a t-5, so fixing the brakes is deffently high on my list of things to do

howdy there


hows the brake booster doing ?

when you shut off the car and pull the large vacuum hose off the booster is there alot of stored vacuum in it ?

any vacuum noise sound inside the car under the dash while running ?

if not then the problem has to be at a wheel, or in the master cyinder




car been sitting a long time not driven ?

pedal wont move makes me thing booster is bad, when they go bad it takes ALOT of force to get the pedal to move

it is rare for a GM booster to go bad, but they do, i have owned closer to 150 or 200 GM cars and only had one bad one, it was in an 83 caprice and the booster was already bad when i bought the car,

no vacuum noise sound however

booster was just plain dead non functioning
bought one off a junkyard car in which was actually a reman one by chance, off another caprice haha
for 40 bucks

check the booster for vacuum storage

after shutting it off it should have enough vacuum in it for at least two full pedal pumps

for safety reasons, in case the engine dies while driving, so you can safely bring the vehicle to a stop

this is how they are designed


for a reason

master cylinder failure is wayyyyyy more common

as well as brake hose failure

in which is a real possibility in your case

one may be internally colllapsed, i have had to replace many hoses due to this

a collapsed hose will either cause the brake on that hub to not work at all

or it will cause it to be stuck on/drag badly as if the caliper were stuck, but isnt actually due to the caliper being faulty



both occur
been here and had this happen on many different vehicles

if there is really no leaking or anything elsne the it has to be a component or hose failure



good luck

hmm all good ideas, how ever i checked most of them, there is NO leaks, nothn appears damage, how ever b4 i bought it i dont now how long it sat, 4 years i htink, then it became a daily driver, and its not at one wheel, its at all wheels at once.
umm there was no hissing noises....w8 there was one time for a little, but it was only one time.

umm i cant check the vac now bc well there is no motor in it, lol.

o and the 2 pedel pumps when the car is off, it ranges everytime when one of those things happens, i mean when the brakes messed up, the pumps would range from 1 up to 9, but the norm was 3 when the brakes worked correctly...

ill check the booster and master when i get a chance but right now im researching

If the booster was bad it'd take a lot more to press the pedal but you'd still be able to "engage" the brakes. If it's sinking to the floor and the brakes are not engaging and you're sure theres no leaks it sounds like the master cylinder is internally bypassing. Still.. the check the wheel cylinder pistons and caliper pistons for leaks. Sometimes they only leak enough to make the shoes and springs look wet or pads.

hmm uk 402 gta u might b right, i remember that when i turned my rotors b4 that the springs looked wet, i didnt think anyhting of it, but thinking bout it, it was in the afternoon when i turned them and it didnt rain for a week, and there was no puddles i went tho. ill check those to, thank you for the help everyone.

but there still is a question, everything metioned seems to be wrong with my brakes, however why is the problems appear and disappear at will? and the problems are different at any given time when something happens. plus if any of these things was wrong how could i of drove it for so long and not have total brake faliure?

Sounds like you may have more than one problem. Sometimes like they have said the master cyl. bypasses. When they would not go all the way down is probably booster leaked down temporaily. It have even been a bad vacum line going to the booster.