Brake Warning Light On and Off and Mushy Brake Pedal

ecfune

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2018
Messages
3
Location
Chesapeake, VA
The rear brake line on my 2001 TJ was leaking and I replaced all the brake lines with stainless steel lines. I bled the brakes and the brake pedal feels low and kind of slow to react. The brake warning light is on and the buzzer is going off and on. Bled the brakes again with no change in braking. I drove the Jeep yesterday and I noticed that it is pulling to the left. Also when I brake, the vehicle kind of sways. After a while I felt that the left front brake was dragging. I stopped and saw the left rotor was glowing hot. I had the Jeep towed to my house. It seems that the driver side caliper seized up and stuck. I replaced both calipers and both wheel cylinders cylinders (bleeder screws are stuck). Bled the system and braking improved but then the brake warning light and buzzer is on and off again. The brakes sometimes are low. Sometimes when you step on the brake pedal there is a sound that seems to shift something. The brakes seem to work fine but with low pedal and slow reaction. Is the proportioning valve causing this and needs to be reset? I do not know what is left to replace. I read a lot of tread here about brake issues and I think mine id different. It seems the brake pedal is not solid and hard. Thank you.
 
Sounds like you have a seized caliper and possibly the system needs to be bled more. Do you smell any smoke or burnt brakes when driving it?
 
I replaced the right and left caliper and brake pads, left and right wheel cylinders. I have not driven the jeep a long distance yet and I do not smell burnt brakes right now. It did yesterday when the caliper seized though.
 
I was able to fix the brake lights and buzzer going on and off by driving the Jeep and braking hard several times like you have an emergency as suggested by one of the members. This action reset the proportioning valve to the correct position. The proportioning valve shifted when it sensed that there was a loss of fluid and needed to be reset. The brakes are working fine now. Thank you for your replies.
 
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That you changed your front brake calipers makes me ask the question.... did you get the sides reversed? If you accidentally swapped the left and right side calipers you will NOT be able to get the brake lines properly bled. They will bolt into place like they belong there but that doesn't mean they can't be reversed.

If the brake line is above the bleeder port you have the sides reversed.

This shows how it looks when properly installed with the bleed port above the brake line.

Bleeding-2.jpg