I have a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer(same as Explorer)
ever since I bought it, it seems the brake pedal is mushy.
if I hold the pedal down hard it seems to go almost to the floor.
brakes don't seem to work as well as other vehicals I've drove.
I just replaced rotors and brake pads on all 4 corners.
and it almost seems worse. is this a master cylinder problem or something normal for the ABS?
Thanks for any info.

 

Could be the brakes need air bled out. Or could be master cylinder shot (from not bleeding right after replacing parts).

 

Brake pedal has always been soft and not super responsive.
had 60,000 miles when I bought it. the reason it seems worse after I replaced the pads and rotors is that I got vented/slotted rotors that were zinc plated, found out it takes a bit to wear through the zinc plating and bed the brakes in.
my master cylinder doesn't seem to leak down if I hold steady pressure on the pedal. just the fact that if I press hard enough on the pedal it will go nearly to the floor.
I'm goin to attemptbleeding the brakes before I replace the master. if that doesn't change it i'll toss on my new master cylinder and bleed them again.

 

Well I bled the Brakes and it didn't change at all so I replaced the master cylinder.
I bench bled it completly, then installed it and re-bled the brakes
about 17 times for the right rear, 13 for the left rear, 10 for the right front, and about 7 for the front left, pedal seemed much stiffer and right at the top, that is until I started it and bam right back to being able to push it to the floor. I used an entire 32oz bottle of fluid bleeding my brakes. my brake fluid was very black. and left residue in my master cylinder and resivore. I cleaned it all completly.
I'm goin to pick up another bottle of brake fluid and keep bleeding. if that doesn't solve my problem i'm not sure what I can do.

Has anyone heard of the ABS unit causing a soft pedal?
my brakes work good enough to do a emergency stop but it requires decent amount of pedal pressure.
I have a 5000 mile drive with a heavy trailer comming up in a month and I need my brakes to be top notch.
thanks for any info or insight anyone can provide.

 

I have heard once ai has entered the hcu of the abs brake system it can not be bled out with conventional methods they have a special tool at the dealership or shop that will get trapped air out of the hcu that other wise can stay trapped in there forever till its bled right. when it comes to abs remeber that if you change parts they have to be replaced quickly and the lines or rubber hoses disconneted must be plugged to avoid air getting into the lines and backing up into the hcu. take it to the shop or dealer and have this issue addressed as i do not think at this point that it will be able to properly be fixed at home..good luck

 

by the way hcu stands for " hydrolic control unit " in case you want to do some reading up on this part in a repair manual