I have 2006 Ford Expedition with the same soft pedal problem since I bought it used. Brake fluid has been replaced by dealer who said soft pedal is normal.

All other brake components have been inspected and appear normal.

I know I am on the F150 forum, but would like to know if the "adjust booster output rod" fix applies to the 2006 Ford Expedition? Is the booster output rod on this model SUV adjustable?

Ant thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

 

I have no experience with Expys. It would not hurt to check.

 

I am still working on the soft pedal issue on my 2006 Expedition. It also has a weak parking brake which works off small brake shoes in the rear rotors.

I had my rotors, which were original and never turned, turned, taking off about 0.2 thousands which cleaned them up and eliminated a slight warpage in one front rotor. At the same time I had the parking brake shoes tightened a bit.

I can not believe that the parking brakes are not adjustable from the outside; the rear rotors have to be removed to adjust them! There is a slot with a rubber boot in the dust plate thingie but the independent rear suspension blocks tool access.

Anyway, the parking brakes are still weak; will not hold vehicle in drive at idle.

And the soft pedal is barely better, with two inches of free pedal and the brakes feel like stepping on a loaf of bread. I will run in the pads to see if any improvement happens.

Does anyone have any further thoughts?

 

Have you adjusted the rod yet? It is really pretty easy to do, just mark where it was before if you're nervous about doing it and you could put it back to where it was if you like...

 

I have not adjusted the rod yet because I have not yet run in the pads after having the rotors turned, but I plan to. I am contemplating changing out my emergency brake shoes but need to find a good American made set. The existing shoes seem to be worn out by 50-60%, which is surprising to me, unless the previous owner drove the car with the emergency brake engaged.

 

make sure you do all the basics first.
the master cylinder has a needle valve that push's the fluid to the brakes.
if it is passing (worn seals) then your not going to get good braking no matter what.

1 replace the master cylinder - they are fairly cheap
2 inspect the flex lines on the front and rear - I've seen these lose wall integrity and balloon out instead of holding and no pressure goes to the calipers
3 bleed all lines until clean fresh fluid comes out - brake fluid does absorb moisture out of the air and will act just like air in lines
4 pads and rotors !!!!!
5 adjust the push rod - a little change does make a LOT of difference!!!!!

 

I have new Raybestos (811PG) parking brake shoes coming in the mail.

I will check the master cylinder needle valve and the flex lines front and rear-I did not realize they were not steel until I was laying on the ground by the rear wheels!! WOW!

I assume a leaking master cylinder needle valve can be checked by watching the action of the brake fluid in the master cylinder fluid reservoir while pushing on the brake pedal, correct?

I have had the local Ford dealership change out the brake fluid so it should be fresh.

FF301, thank you for the ideas!

My rotors and pads are good. Rotors were just turned, taking off 0.2 thousands which cleaned them up; pads are Raybestos and fairly new.

 

This is a followup to my 5/20/2013 post.

2006 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 4X4

Replace Parking Brake shoes; Drum in Hat Style; Raybestos 811PG shoes.

Preface: The parking brake on this vehicle is not self adjusting, it can not be adjusted from the exterior due to interference from the independent rear suspension (caveat-there is a slot with a rubber grommet in the dust shield by the adjustment star wheel but access is blocked or a very special tool is needed) and the cable can not be adjusted from underneath like the old days. The caliper and rotor must be removed to adjust the parking brake. Since, I needed to adjust the parking brake I decided to put on new shoes (about $45 per set) since it appears the previous owner must have driven the vehicle with the parking brake on as the shoes were worn down (parking brake shoes should have little or no wear if working properly-they only clamp the wheels from turning while stopped). This parking brake would not hold the vehicle, even when pressed all the way to the floor.

This is what I did.

Released parking brake with car transmission in Park. Removed wheel nut cover with big screwdriver and loosened the nuts. Jacked up car and placed extra blocks under independent rear suspension for safety.

Removed wheel and tire which is fairly heavy. This revealed the disc caliper and rotor.

Removed the small caps covering the screws (on back side of caliper) that hold the caliper on to the caliper support bracket; used a 7 mm hex drive with a 3/8ths drive.

Removed the screws. Removed the spring steel clamping device from the front of the caliper using a pry bar.

The caliper now will come off the rotor and can be moved forward and set on the suspension without opening the brake fluid system. The outboard pad will probably come loose; remember how it goes back.

Remove the caliper support bracket using a 14 mm socket with a 3/8 drive and long handle; there are two bolts on back side and they will be tight.

The rotor can now be removed; mine was loose but some others may need persuasion.

This will now reveal the parking brake plus the rear axle.

The easy part is over. The next part is not complex, it is just a bit pesky.

While the brake springs appear small they are very, very strong and there is not a lot of room to work as the axle shaft is prominent.

This part took me a while to figure out. I first removed the shoe hold down springs in the center of the shoes; they are fairly easy to remove but turned out to be pesky to replace. Then I tuned the star adjustment wheel to minimum length. I finally got the wheel adjusting device off with some crude measures that included a hammer! Once that item was off the bottom spring fell off. Many attempts at trying to remove the spring with a pair of pliers failed; no room to really get a hold on the spring.

The top spring is tough also; I finally figured out that twisting the top of one of the shoes outward allowed for the spring to be removed, and then the other shoe came off along with the spring.

Next, I cleaned the shoe actuating lever with brake cleaner to make sure the lever pin was operating freely. I left all moving parts dry, without any lubrication as that is the way it appears to have come from the factory. I cleaned the star adjusting screw with brake cleaner to make sure it was not gummed up and left it dry.

I then reassembled the parking brake system with new shoes starting with the top by reversing order and using same technique if you could call it that. This took awhile. The bottom spring was the last item replaced using an ice pick as a drift. Here is the way it looked. The new shoe material (on left side) was at least 40% thicker than the old shoes.

Now the shoes had to be adjusted. I measured the inside diameter of the drum on the rotor at 9 inches plus 1/16th. I used a large protractor device I happened to have to set the outside diameter of the shoes. It was set at 9 inches plus so the shoes would almost kiss the drum.

I expanded the shoe diameter using the star adjusting wheel until I was satisfied there was just a small amount of clearance. I checked many times and at many points on the shoe circumference. The outside diameter of the shoes will almost be a perfect circle with a small amount of deviation. One wants to spend time with this step because one wants to do this only once; if it is wrong the wheels, calipers and rotors have to be removed again. It turns out the star screw had 5/16th of thread showing when I felt the adjustment was correct. Before closing up, I cleaned the shoe material with brake cleaner to remove all traces of grease.

Doing the first wheel (left hand) took me 3 hours and 20 minutes! I was working on the ground. Ouch! Be prepared to get dirty hands; have hand cleaner and rags available.

The second wheel (right hand) took me just under 2 hours. I found a fast way to remove the bottom star wheel and spring by using a 2X4 block and a pry bar to open the shoes (after both center pins were removed) on the bottom enough for the star wheel to fall out, which allowed the bottom spring to be easily removed.

Some observations:

1. Wear on the left side parking brake shoes was greater than the right hand side which had very little wear. The reason could be the adjustment on the right side was looser than the left, or the tension when set was less due to the fact that the parking brake cable runs under the left hand side of the vehicle toward the back and then has a branch run over to the right hand side, which means there is a more direct route to the left hand side brake.

2. The stud holes in the rotor are larger than the wheel studs by about 3/32 inch and the rotors do not have a self centering device like a dowel or a notch. The rotors are just sandwiched between the axle hub and the wheel. So the center of the rotor may not be the center of the axle by a small amount, and the parking brake drum then would be off center a small bit in relation to the drum. Am I right about this or did I miss something?

3. The flexible brake line to the caliper does not have a braided steel exterior. I can understand the line having to be flexible, but it is not protected from flying debris from the road other than being up in the frame. Curious.

4. The old brake shoes appeared to have a glaze on them which may explain a bit of why they did not hold.

5. As stated earlier, there is a hole in the dust shield near the star wheel adjuster with a rubber grommet in it. But the clearance behind the wheel is so small as to make it very unlikely one could do a good job of adjusting the parking brake with the wheels on.

6. I probably could have just adjusted the old shoes and got them to work right because there was wear left in them.


The parking brake now works much better and does not go to the floor. The parking brake will hold the vehicle in forward gear at idle or on a hill.

 

Just fixed the soft brake pedal issue on my 07 SCREW.

Took maybe 15 minutes 1 1/4 turns & it was done.

Thanks again for your help RMS8 and Silverbullet5.4.

Lee

 

I've read the entire thread and I would just like to say that rms8, I find you to be annoying and childish, easily offended, and you seem to have a desperate need to validate the legitimacy of this fix any chance you get. While I think you posted this thread with the best intentions, I do not think you've handled yourself well.

I would have had much more respect for you if you looked beyond a few snide remarks in otherwise valuable posts from a couple of gentlemen who clearly have a very advanced knowledge of braking systems and master cylinders. One of those guys even helped refine the procedure for the better.

I am actually quite shocked others didn't call you out on this years ago in defense of the others. Even more surprised some have said you handled it well..., really people?!

Anyway:

I'm curious how many people might be mistaking "spongy" pedal feel for some slack in the pedal travel.

In my experience, spongy pedal feel has to do with how squishy the brakes are once the pedal is pushed far enough that the brakes start to engage. For example, air in the lines makes the pedal really feel spongy, because air compresses (and pure fluid does not) and thus the pedal feels, well, spongy, or squishy.

Slack in the pedal travel is a different situation.

This fix seems to address the slack in the pedal travel, rather than "spongy" pedal feel. Would that be more accurate?

I notice my pedal has about 1" of travel before the brakes start to engage. I wonder if this "fix" would help tighten that up.

I've fully bled my brakes and changed them all around, and I really feel that once they engage the pedal feel is actually quite good. It just feels like I have to push the pedal to the floor to get them to engage... which makes me feel as though my issue is more of a "slack" problem than a "spongy" problem.

 

Just a follow-up... I posted that I resolved my soft pedal problem with the arm-adjusting trick about 11 months ago BUT about a month later I got into my truck and when starting it, the pedal went to the floor. It was a bad master cylinder. Luckily it went out before I drove off, and it occurred after a particularly cold night here. The master had been installed only about a year prior to the "fix", but by a shop I no longer do business with because I suspected they used shoddy parts, and their work was sloppy as well (went downhill under a new owner).

So I had another new master installed at another shop, had the entire brake system pressure flushed and bled, and all has been fine since.

 

I did the rod adjustment about a year ago... it "seemed" to help for a while, but it was soon back to the same long travel.
What it reminds me of is when old rear drum brakes would get out of adjustment. Adjust the rear drums up and I would have great brakes again.
With my '06 FX4 I have had the same experience as others in this thread, that after I pull my 30' travel trailer I have great brakes for a long time.

I wonder if the rear discs are set up to far away from the rotor.
I haven't had my rear brakes apart to know if the rear calipers are the "ratchet" type that have to be screwed back in, or not. But to me, it feels like the ratchet points are to course and causing the pads to be to far from the rotor. Then each time the brakes are applied it takes extra fluid to fill them. If pumped up, they stay filled for a short period of time and slowly bleed down, once I pump mine up they are good for several seconds. Air would immediately decompress.
When pulling heavy loads, like my 8,000 lb+ trailer, the extra pressure on the brakes ratchets the rotor out farther and I have great brakes for several hundred miles until the pads wear back down.

There I go again, thinking out loud.

 

Good video on this project-

 

sorry guys, dont wanna read 26 pages to get an answer..

which direction are ya'll adjusting this problematic rod? CLOCKWISE OR COUNTER CLOCKWISE???

 

counter clockwise