2004 Silverado Spongy Brakes

[redondotom]

I have a 2004 1/2 ton truck. The brakes feel spongy to me. I had it to the dealer and they said everything was normal! Anyone else having this problem?

[desertmike1]

Your brakes are probably OK
Look at the message string under (soft brakes)

-Mike

[ChevyWade]

i heard that if you drive in reverse and hit the brakes hard it resets them. naybe this will work for you. it works on my friends 89 silverado

[LoneWolf3]

It's normal...I have a 2004 silverado 2 wd, it's just the way the braking is on these new one, prevents rear wheel lockup from happening more often than needed, it does take alittle getting used to, after driving about 1500 miles I got back in my 99 park avenue, hit brakes, almost went through windshield.

[juma33]

if your brakes a spongy, you have air or water in the brake lines. bleed the brakes to remove the air. juma

[LoneWolf3]

Juma, I drove 4 new ones, they all feel same, I know you probably know what your talking about, but '04 they made changes I understand that don't match up how a '03 reacts as well.....I have no issue with the sponge feel, I can stop on dime without skidding

[juma33]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf3

Juma, I drove 4 new ones, they all feel same, I know you probably know what your talking about, but '04 they made changes I understand that don't match up how a '03 reacts as well.....I have no issue with the sponge feel, I can stop on dime without skidding

well, maybe...depends what he's really talking about. I drove a brand new '04 reg cab sport bed and its brakes seemed same as my '97 to me - good and hard on the slam. If he is talking about applying the brakes sitting still and reaching the end of travel and finding them soft or spongy and impossible to pump up harder, then its air in the lines, or maybe water.

basically, your theory on metering delay used to apply when trucks had rear drums but with front and rear discs they can come on at the same time with no problem. the action of drum brakes makes them hard to modulate and thats why they required this setup. I personnally modified the metering on my caprice with 4 wheel discs so that it all hits all wheels at one time. It is possible that chevy did not modify the combi-valve metering after they went to 4-wheel discs - they didn't on the impala SS or copcar caprice either. In that case what you experience is hit the brakes and nothing happens for a second or two. I guess you could call that spongy too.

Most people don't pay much maintenance attention to their brakes and just learn to live with low performance. Brake fluid gets air and water in it pretty quick and stops and feel start degrading. the average guy can pull this out by getting speedbleeders and changing fluid every 1-2 years. I like to fool with cars so i do it but it ain't for everybody. If they hadn't invented speedbleeders, I'd probably still do it but I wouldn't have been able to stay married:>)

juma

[LoneWolf3]

So if I hit brakes and have to maintain pressure and keep pushing harder to stop, there is air or water in new vehilce?

[juma33]

well since you put it that way, just sounds like normal. spongy is when, sitting still, you push on the brake and pump it up and at the hardest point it still has say more than an inch or two of bouncing travel that you can get by pushing harder. the opposite is a rock hard pedal with about a half inch of bouncing travel.

On the other hand, is your complaint that you push on the brakes, they engage, but they just don't seem to stop the truck well -- you have to push really hard to get them to stop quick? If that's it, maybe its just that the truck is underbraked. I've heard that about stock pads. A set of peformance friction pads from autozone would be/has been my first mod.

Its hard to tell and I'm thinking its getting harder to diagnos over the internet. My advice is get new performance friction pads and bleed the brakes. then if you aren't happy, its probably the brakes are too small for the size of the truck.

do you have the trailer tow package? that came with bigger brakes and that may be why I thought the truck I drove was ok while yours may not seem like it has enough brake.

juma

[LoneWolf3]

I don't have the Tow pack, but the truck is new, I would say I don't have to stand on them, I just push without strain and it stops, I could cram them and skid if i want, but I can come right on a car and stop right on them, so may be normal, I should go with better in about 6 months though, thanks.

Jerry