Just came back from the brake shop. I had two incidents in creeping traffic when the brake pedal had no effect until I mashed the pedal to the firewall.
Since I had not had the brakes inspected recently, I took the 96 D1 to the Midas brake shop. Got a few pieces of news (called
surprises).
ALL the rotors were under the mininium specification of thinness. Can't shave them because they were already shaved by the pads.
All the pads were worn down to the backing except one set. The technician let me in the work shop since I was able to talk the talk and I had the the front set of rotors. When he removed one set of pads in the front, the screwdriver punched thru the backing , not the braking material, and I saw cracking thru the old pads.
The two incidents were probably the pads beginning to crack up like cookies and beginning to fail and then the hydraudics compensated for the pads yielding under the pressure of the calipers.
In 24 hours hindsight, One thing I don't think I will be doing in a New York summer again is to work on changing the brake pads. It was 90 in an open shop with moderate humidity. Excellent weather for heatstroke or worse.
Thanks that I saw ahead and ordered the rotors for the front. Next time I will order front and back rotors and keep them in my parts corner for the D1.
Afterwards, the brake pedal was up in the air and is now up and firm like a mother. The bad thing, I am still waiting for another rear rotor. Seems that D1 rotors are kept in stock one at a time in a big town like NYC. Now thats stupid.
BTW, I bought a a pair stock rotors from JT Outfitters last October on eBay for about $80 dollars. Other than a beautiful UPS female delivering a box full of rotors weighing 33 lbs, they had just sat in the loadspace until yesterday.
Now I am real broke but got brakes!
On a whim, get those pads and rotor thicknesses checked.
I bet you will solve the mystery of the traveling brake pedal.
Adam in NYC
: Traffic in NYC!
PS Tell your Dealer to check the brakes or go to someone who knows brakes and have them do the job. Then fire your muttenhead of a Dealer. Do a Trump (You're fired!)
