Austarion

Hey all,

Had a little bit of a race with a supra this afternoon and jammed on the brakes to stop for some red lights up ahead. I know it was a dumb idea to race him, wont be doing any racing that fast on semi suburban roads again for a while.

Anyway, back to the problem. Basically what has happened is that after i stopped at the intersection (skidded about 200m with full brakes applied) and turned the corner the brakes felt quite grindy when applyng any braking force at all. I then noticed that i could not physically push the brake pedal in more than 1/4 of the way and any braking attempt at all was incredibly hard, as if the pedal had cramped up and stiffened significantly. The braking force is still there i believe, but the pedal has locked up so much so that i cant get it more than 1/4 of the way down now.

Im guessing it is somethign to do with the brake cable as the pedal is clear of obstruction. Is this something that I can fix myself or should i ship it down to the garage and get them to fix it up?

Also while im at it, I have a little problem where the gear shift knob in the cabin rattles a fair bit when im accelerating, and one of my friends suggested this is probably because the gear shift may be a bit loose. Is this the right diagnosis and how do i fix it?

TIA

Jeff

fr335tyl3r wrote:Also while im at it, I have a little problem where the gear shift knob in the cabin rattles a fair bit when im accelerating, and one of my friends suggested this is probably because the gear shift may be a bit loose. Is this the right diagnosis and how do i fix it?

have the balance shafts been removed? You get a vibration like that as a downside to the extra power. at certain rpms in certain gears i beleive.

How would i be able to tell this decoy? What should i look for under the hood. I have only had this car for a few weeks and the last guy wasnt exactly perfectly clear on what had been done to the car...but it was cheap and it goes good :P lol

how'd u go against the supra?

Check the pads, you may have dislodged one somewhere along the way. Is there much meat on them anyway?

By the way, skidded 200m??? You know when a brake locks up, you can get off the pedal and try again, you may stop a little quicker.

that's was ABS is for starions dont have em rofl I'm not a big fan of ABS either especially if you can't adjust the sensitivity :(

It was a fairly short run race and it was from a rollign start (about 20k/hr b4 i realised he was racing) but i won :P

Ive checked the pedal for anything dumb like something stuck in it, and ive checked the brake fluid and its ok. I'm gonna check the pads and if i cant see anything there ill take it to the servo tommorrow morning.

Thanks guys.

Might just need a bleed to clear any air bubbles ?

It could be that You blew the brake booster, with no brake booster, the brake pedal feels very hard to push down. The manual shows how to test for a leaking brake booster.
If you have a JA gearbox, there is a nylon bush that wears out in the gear stick. Take out the gear stick, it is a little white cap sticking on the end of the ball joint. Mitusbishi have it as a spare part.
Hope this is of help.
A.
:)

my gear shift has the same problem, i'm going to order the bush/rubber 2morrow and see how it goes. :beer
i'm also in the process of getting a new brake booster as mine has a started to leak, along with the clutch cylinder :x not happy at all.
could this be due to the wrong grade of fluid being used? i know that the cars operators manual says "dot 3", i think that maybe the old owner put in "dot 4" or some equivelant, as i flushed the system with "dot 3" and then topped it up with the "dot 3" or is it just the age/wear/tear factor?
so far the car has a new cooling system and i guess now along with the new brakes and lines, new clutch i might as well do the 2 boosters. :x

dot 4 should be fine

a brake pedal hard to put down after lots of hard braking is perfectly normal, but after one application sounds a bit dodgy..

bleed the brakes before you try anything else, it doesn't cost you anything (except a tiny bit of brake fluid), and takes not much time to do. It helps to have a friend handy though

well well well...im going to rename my starion mr piggybank cause thats were all my savings go to :P

The problem was the master brake cylinder leaked (it needs to b replaced) and destroyed the brake booster...costing me around $600 for bits + labour. OMG no suspension for me.

fr335tyl3r wrote:well well well...im going to rename my starion mr piggybank cause thats were all my savings go to :P

u still have savings!!! :o lucky man!!:

toysrus wrote:that's was ABS is for starions dont have em rofl I'm not a big fan of ABS either especially if you can't adjust the sensitivity :(

NZ Starions do, some also have traction control (bugger that).

Starions make a nice tyre smell when you lock up all four wide tyres. Was in Auckland once, hot tarmac, was doing about 60, saw the car infront was doing 0, hit the brakes but it was downhill and very hard to stop, went in to a skid. 2 seconds later that very strong molten rubber smell comes through the car. Didnt have time to check out the marks I left tho :(

$600 sounds like a bit much. I had my entire master cylinder recoed and fitted for around $400. This was before the days I realised I could do most of this stuff myself and save shitloads.