hard pedal

[Guest 90eldorado]

hi everybody i am new to this , posting of any kind. i stumbled on to you by way of searching about my teves brake system on my 90eldo. i contacted my local caddy dealer here in toms river nj & of course they said bring her in so we can check out the problem. all well & good. it seems that the teves system of stopping isn't everything its cracked up to be. i read a few of the past postings by fellow members & decided to sign up with aaca. i didn't think she was old enough to be a part of this site but what the heck. can't hurt. ny problem is that my brake pedal is like pushing on cement. barely moves. i checked out rock auto.com & their sales assoc. was not very helpful at all. sometimes i have a pedal & sometimes not. the abs lite is on all the time, & now the brake lite comes on & stays on but not all the time. WEIRD. i guess it has to do with age. i rarely drive her forget snow i would walk first. i don't like taking her out in the rain either. its another thing getting caught in the rain. she was my dd at one time., but the deville does all the dirty work now. anybody have any ideas or is caddy the best alternative.HELP PLEASE, thanx, brakeless:(

[DAVES89]

You should skip down to the Reatta site on this same page. There is a test you should put your car thru to determine what you need [There is a link there or you can go to www.reattaowner.com]. I am quite sure that 3 things are needed;

1] Brake Fluid flush

2] Accumulator [The thing that looks like a toilet float ball on top of your master cylinder]

3] Maybe a low pressure switch.

If money is a concern Jim Finn has used working replacement parts otherwise you can go thru the link at reattaowner and buy new thru the site on Amazon. Ronnie has priced out the items for you. It is real convienant.

If you are somewhat mechanical you can do the work yourself.

By all means do not drive the car until the hard pedal issue is addressed as you have very little stopping power and you might hurt/kill yourself or others.

[rhb1999]

Bad booster?, Just a guess.

[Guest 90eldorado]

hi daves89 i will go to that site. thanx.i wish i would have had it done by tampa caddy those people are like brogan caddy in ridgewood nj, good as gold. when i look at this do i take the master cylinder off or work on it on the car. it looks greek to me. not that i haven't worked on cars before, i had a 55 ford a 54 ford & a 40 ford. i don't know where to start with this monster. my brother in law has a shop in clifton but i am no where near him. he said to replace the whole cylinder but he also said that cadillac has the correct way to test to see what it exactly is. but you know dealers. sock it to you time, but on the other hand it is warrented so what do you think? betwee a rock & a hard place. nothing new different day. let me know what you think thanx bobby talalay

[Guest 90eldorado]

hi daves89 i remember one day that my master cyl. overflowed & i thought it was due to the steep driveway i was parked on , the house we rented in fl. could it have been the accumulator discharging back into the master cyl.? i read about the acc on reatta site & i can believe that there is no nitro in it especially after 22 years. nothing lasts forever. could it be? let me know what you think. thanx bobby talalay

[Rawja]

You master cylinder overflowed because you had the system overfilled.

Before adding fluid to the master, it's required that you de-pressurize the system by pumping the brakes (with the car turned off) at least 25 times until the pedal is rock hard. THEN you add fluid to the fill line on the reservoir.