2000 Forester, brakes require extra force

MISSY3

MEMBER
2000 SUBARU

I have a 2000 Forester which has always had noisy breaks since I bought it used a few years ago. Because I learned to ignore the noise, I ended up eating my rotors when my pads really did need changing. I had new rotors put on and some ceramic pads that they said would reduce the noise. However, now my car requires greater force to stop than it did before. It seems to stop OK, but I have to push pretty hard on the brake to get it to do anything. I took it back and had them bleed the brakes again, but that did nothing. What might the problem be? Is it simply because the ceramic pads are less grippy?

1 Reply

RASMATAZ

MECHANIC
75,992 POSTS

A leaky brake vacuum hose, brake check valve. Defective booster

Bad check valve could allow vacuum to bleed out of the booster causing a hard brake-

Do this start the car up run it for a few minutes-shut it off wait for 4-6 mins. Then try the brakes to see if there's a power assist-if not replace the brake check valve.