2nd Gen Surf No Brakes!!

[HomeBrew]

Took the truck for its first 4wd Day Out. All was well until we came back down the mountain. I could smell something burning but continued when i didnt persist. We were about 2km from the bottum when i felt almost no power in my brakes. I put my foot to the floor and it barely slowed the Truck. When we stopped i had smoke coming off the front brakes. We left it too calm down for 5 minutes and it seemed to help. Although i could smell it coming back so i did my best to stay off the brakes.

Has anyone else had this problem? My brakes have never felt very touchy but this kind of freaked me out.

She'll be going to the mechanic on monday
Ideas Guys??

Shaun

[Smurf]

Sounds like you relied on your brakes too much on your descent, you should have used a lower gear to control the speed of your descent and only used your brakes when necessary.
You will want to replace all your brake pads and/or shoes. Check the condition of your rotors and drums also. It may pay to replace your brake fluid too, i'm not sure how that handles getting cooked.

[HomeBrew]

Sounds like you relied on your brakes too much on your descent, you should have used a lower gear to control the speed of your descent and only used your brakes when necessary.
You will want to replace all your brake pads and/or shoes. Check the condition of your rotors and drums also. It may pay to replace your brake fluid too, i'm not sure how that handles getting cooked.

The Surfs an auto so its a bit more of a pain to engine brake. I didnt ride them that hard though so i think they may just be old and shagged

Expensive fix you reckon?

[tallsam66]

Mine is auto ..engine breaking works fine ...maybe you werent in low range.

[HomeBrew]

Mine is auto ..engine breaking works fine ...maybe you werent in low range.

No i wasnt we were traveling back down the takapari road so low range would have made it slow and annoying. Il stick to engine breaking abit more from now on then

[Konev]

if you want to 'fix it' change the brake pads, they have just cooked. if you have never done this, and going by mentioning taking it to a mechanic, i will presume so. then watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYnQxEjGq2A

yes its that easy.

oh and make sure you have the truck on axle stands (very cheap and useful) and not just a jack.

[Cameron]

shit I ride my brakes quite a lot down takapari, otherwise being a mitsi I'd probably run out of oil. Never even smell them getting hot or anything

check your pads. check the REAR brakes are doing what they should. losing all your pedal probably means you need to give it a fluid flush. Happened to me in the hills of welly in my old toyota a couple of years ago. Reckon it'd got moisture in the fluid, and it was this moisture boiling due to some heat and geting epic brake fade.

[bob_or_jim]

Somethings not quite right there, Surf brakes are massive for the truck there stopping. Deff worth looking at the fluid. The worst bit is the rear brakes tend to fail/seize causing the fronts to do everything. If its lifted it may be worth looking at the proportional valve in the rear. Its hooked to the rear diff so when you have a heavy load on it give the rear brakes more power. If you have lifted the truck then that valve will be shut off almost all of the time. You can bend the bar that goes to the diff to correct this. Hope this helps?

[bronx89]

Somethings not quite right there, Surf brakes are massive for the truck there stopping. Deff worth looking at the fluid. The worst bit is the rear brakes tend to fail/seize causing the fronts to do everything. If its lifted it may be worth looking at the proportional valve in the rear. Its hooked to the rear diff so when you have a heavy load on it give the rear brakes more power. If you have lifted the truck then that valve will be shut off almost all of the time. You can bend the bar that goes to the diff to correct this. Hope this helps?

Completely forgot about doing this myself after my lift although I have not had the issues mentioned in this topic, brakes still feel good.

Which way do you bend the valve? And which bit do you bend? Do you have a pic to make it a bit clearer? Cheers!

PS I have an auto surf too, so if you want any engine braking at all you got to use low range, bit of a hassle but if you are on the brakes that hard it must be steep and you shouldn't be going that fast anyway so low ratio would be fine.

[jonossiksilvia]

Putting a surf into low range will engage 4wd no matter what you with the 4wd button. Bad on hard surface. To over come this there is a low range switch on the side of transfer box. Unplug this and tape up water tight. U now have low range 2wd. Push button then will have 4wd low.

[RobLucking]

just out of interest on this topic, the proportional valve had about 1.5" of movement on the thread on diff housing, would I be right to assume that if you have given it a 2" lift, then the 1.5" of travel would come close to compensating for it, plus a wee bit of a bend in the rod?

[Sadam_Husain]

Which way do you bend the valve? And which bit do you bend? Do you have a pic to make it a bit clearer? Cheers!

go outside and have a look under your truck and work out which way the arm moved when you lifted the truck and it will all become clear as mud which way you have to bend it or space it ie: 50mm lift 50mm spacer

[HomeBrew]

Putting a surf into low range will engage 4wd no matter what you with the 4wd button. Bad on hard surface. To over come this there is a low range switch on the side of transfer box. Unplug this and tape up water tight. U now have low range 2wd. Push button then will have 4wd low.

Is it worth the hassle or should i just stick it in 2nd and ride it down slowly??

[HomeBrew]

shit I ride my brakes quite a lot down takapari, otherwise being a mitsi I'd probably run out of oil. Never even smell them getting hot or anything

check your pads. check the REAR brakes are doing what they should. losing all your pedal probably means you need to give it a fluid flush. Happened to me in the hills of welly in my old toyota a couple of years ago. Reckon it'd got moisture in the fluid, and it was this moisture boiling due to some heat and geting epic brake fade.

Will do. U know how steep and windy it is then. Imagine with no brakes
Not good

[jonossiksilvia]

Putting a surf into low range will engage 4wd no matter what you with the 4wd button. Bad on hard surface. To over come this there is a low range switch on the side of transfer box. Unplug this and tape up water tight. U now have low range 2wd. Push button then will have 4wd low.

Is it worth the hassle or should i just stick it in 2nd and ride it down slowly??

i only said this if people need low range on transfer box on hard surfaces