Currently no vibrating at all at any speeds.
When stopping or slowing normally, no braking issues.
There are 15,000 miles on the car, plenty of brake pad left.
ABS does work fine, as tested in the last snow.

However, last night I had to make an emergency stop before a deer took out my HID's

I had the brake pedal all the way through the floor. The tires did not lock up, the ABS did not activate, no tire squeeling. The car did brake hard, but no where near has hard as it should have. My thought is no matter how much more pressure I applied, the pads were not going to grip any better. This is on a dry, straight road.
I had a chance to test again today, a controlled test from 50mph, and I could not get the tires to squeel, lock up, or ABS to activate. The brake grip is just not there. This time i was able to test how hard the pedal was pushed. I did have it all the way down to the floor.

Note that I can decelerate quickly, but I cannot stop on a dime.

I am going to my local dealer next week to have them take a look, don't have time this time for a PAA trip

What should I have them check, or any issue numbers I should mention??

 

Without the car here for me to drive it is hard to say what if anything could be wrong.From your post I assume there are no warning lights on so it is not electronic.It could be that quite simply you found the limits of what the car can do? Other than the bulletin on brake pads causing brake vibration there are no other things to check on.Let me know.Jens

 

Wild guess time...


Could you have some bubbles in your brake system?

Have you checked the fluid level in the reservoir (to see if it look LOW)?

I have also seen and am getting ready to purchase some brake fluid and coolant test strips

link: http://www.acustrip.com/news.html (One of a few)


I have played with the ABS, and I can get the car to brake hard enough to toss a person into the belts so hard, that its not comfortable (at all). I had the windows down and could hear some very light "wheezing" from the tires as the ABS locked and unlocked the very sticky Toyos. The pedal also does NOT go to the floor.

 

no warning lights, brake fluid level full. No leaks around the master cylinder nor abs unit. If it was a bubble in the line, would not this just affect one of the wheels. And the abs system cycles the fluid throughout all the lines so it would self-heal if this was the case.

The car stops fine, I can easily nose-dive it. The car just won't lock-up in a full pedal press. Maybe the stock tires are slipping on the road?? Or maybe it is normal and the brakes are just too small for the car?

Anyway, I'll find out next week.

 

Got me stumped...

BTW -- when the brake fluid gets old, its BP drops quite a bit. Bubbles will form near the hot calipers and it’s not just like needing a bleed (due to a bubble in the line), but more a matter of the fluid getting too much water in it. Both of the fronts will heat about the same (in a even and straight stop), so it is possible that you can find a spongy pedal happening (as fade) in 80-0 stops (It has happened to me -- the pedal is OK for 90% of operation, but really sucks for that emergency stop [high heat = localized bubbling = fade = pedal to floor].)

You covered the "Dumb Simple Stuff", so it needs a "look see up close" to figure out what the heck is going on (kind of like telling the Dr. you have a cough -- TB, cold, flu, ???)

Good luck, let us know what shows up!

 

One more dumb simple stuff - what, precisely, is your tire inflation? Tires that appear fully inflated can be off by as much as 10 psi (especially low pro tires), and they will slip on the rim. I would think the ABS would engage at this point, but maybe not.

 

Tire psi checks out fine. Maybe the brake pads are glazing? Anyway, I will find out soon and post back.

 

I had the same symptoms at around 8K miles. Service replaced my master cylinder...