spongy brakes

[gulam patel]

Please, please can you help! Having recently bought a E-220 (1996) . I'm having night mares driving it as I find the brakes far too spongy, I have no confidence in judging the stopping distance of the car .

On applying the brake e.g at 30mpg, initially there is no reaction the brakes only start to work once the pedal is depressed further. Even then,the car rolls on before you feel confident in its stopping.
I've contacted the dealers and they assure me that thre is always play on the brakes, and they will only work once the pedal has been depressed in quite a degree.

 

[jaymanek]

Hi,

Sounds like you need to get it checked. My E220 brakes werent at all spongy.
Get them checked by the dealer, or any specialist. There is some play, however shouldnt be spongy.

Was there work done on the brakes recently? If so maybe the brakes need bleeding.


Jay

 

[Mike Buley]

Slight play on brakes indicates wear. There should be no sponginess at all, especially if you are unsure of the braking ability.

Sounds to me like they need a good bleed or there is a loss of fluid, causing air in the system, therefore becoming spongy.

It may not be expensive, you can buy self bleed kits, even if you take it to a garage, should not be that bad, they will check brake cylinders, master servo, and the whole gubbins.

Dont mess about, my advice is to have them checked out sooner rather than later, you never know when you may need to stamp on them, not good if you have no faith in them..

Regards,
Mike. :lol:

 

[piestore]

brakes

Hi/




put car into dealer for brake test and ask them to put the result in writing, this will ensure thay do a full check, the symptoms you describe are not normal.

 

[Arnie]

Assuming that there is no air in the system and that you have the correct brake pads, properly bedded in; one source of "sponginess" can be the flexible rubber brake hoses on the front wheels. I replaced the ones on my G-wagen, which also suffered from this problem, with new stainless-steel braided ones and this completely fixed the problem.