NEED INPUT ASAP:, no brakes and i'm drivin right now. Options

[xian 1g]

Allright. It's 1pm. I'm in kankakee driving my 2001 s10. never had a problem with the truck. always starts, goes, stops, and repeat.



doin about 65mph on the 203rd mile of the day.



go to slow down for a turn. the brake pedal is absolutely frozen. no give, no move, no brakes... i down shift till i stop on the side of the road. hop out... i have plenty of brake fluid. well, brake calipers are atleast still on the rotors..





i hope back in to make some phone calls. occasoinally pressing hard on the pedal. starts to give a little... and after a couple of inutes i hear a lot of air being pushed and the pedal functions again...



i'm driiving again now, and the brakes appear to work...



what the heck is going on and should I head home... 2 hrs away...?



it kind of felt like my brake line was passing a kidney stone when it finally starting giving and i heard all the air???

[awd4kicks]

Christian, check the vaccum line to your brake master cylinder. Sounds like the Booster is not working. Hopefully it's just a leaky vaccum line.

[xian 1g]

allright... process has repeated itself.

i checked the line that runs from the throttle body to the big disc behind the master cylinder... no leaks that i could find.

now, i've noticed this... when i pump the brake (when it works) and there is a loud air being pushed noise, if i' sitting at idle... it revs the engine up fro 800rpm to 1200rpm...

thanks for the help.

[turbohcar]

We've got one in the shop just like this. Unfortunately, I won't be able to tell you anything until Monday when it actually gets some shop time. Sorry, but I'll let you know what happens on Monday.

[awd4kicks]

My guess is that the booster is leaking internally and needs replaced.

[turbohcar]

Now that I think about it that would be a logical diagnosis. That would account for the sound of air rushing through the front of the car. But what would make the brakes unresponsive. The brakes should still work if there's a booster on there or not.

[awd4kicks]

Actually having no brake booster would feel just as it would if you were to turn the engine off while driving and tried using the brakes. The pedal gets hard as a rock and will not slow the car/truck down easily because the engine is off and no vaccum is being created.

[turbohcar]

The brakes should still work if there's a booster on there or not.

The pedal gets hard as a rock and will not slow the car/truck down easily because the engine is off and no vaccum is being created.

Exactly what I was thinking, they should still work even if it's only slightly, but what would make them unresponsive?

[awd4kicks]

The amount of braking you get on a moving vehicle with the engine off or the brake booster out is about as unresponsive as you can get while still having brakes. I mean you have to plant your back in the seat and absolutely mash the brake pedal to get any kind of slowing from the brakes in this condition.

I don't recommend trying it on the highway especially if you have a locking steering wheel, but it is possible to try it for yourself by turning the key off while driving. It's a biatch!

[natedogg]

The engine revving up is also a telltale sign of a vacuum leak.

[xian 1g]

took it out to the shop. she pulled the vac line that runs from the power assist solenoid to the throttle body off, and swapped on a DSM line... (travis's never ending attempt to turn every car into a dsm.) and rtv'd around the fitting for the solenoid itself. thus far, it got back home from the shop... to peoria, all around peoria, and i'm halfway back to champ now with no problems.

the true test will be tomorrow. how does 500 miles sound. it's a quick fix but our parking lot is full of dsm's instead of s tens...

[KOU In3]

RTV'd fitting wasn't the solenoid, but was the plastic vacuum fitting going into the power brake booster.

A VERY temporary fix. I'm still of the opinion that swapping in another brake booster and fitting is the proper solution. Not really a good idea to push a 'get you home' type of fix for 500 miles a day.

Just to be clear, although it seemed to be holding well that way when you left that night, it seems a very bad idea to rely on a fix like that for something as important as your brakes.

I really think you should locate an appropriate used or new power brake booster and swap it into the S10.

[xian 1g]

trav- thnx for clarifying what was rtv'd, and for the help...


there is no intention to run this quick fix for good. Ihope to be able to locate a replacer part today, and swap tonight or tomorrow. in the mean time, i'm impressed with how well the quick fix has held up. that was all.

driving on it = bad. but, not much choice. atleast i' aware of the potential situation, and can drive accordingliny


i tried googling champaign junkyards... got nothing, can you pm or email a name for me to look up? thanks.

[turbohcar]

Try www.s10forum.com or www.s10forums.com
The two sites are more about 20 inch wheels and air suspension but occasionally they have good stuff. I got a 300 dollar deck on there for about 100 bucks.

[xian 1g]

i actually joined both of those sites a long time ago.

don't go there uch pretty much for the reason you mention... 'who's baggin'


i'd rather go to a local junkyard than wait for the shipping... but if all else fails...


thanks for the links.

[badbu68]

did you try www.car-part.com ?