How to Troubleshoot the Brakes on a Corvette

If your Corvette's brakes are not working properly, then you could put yourself and other drivers in serious danger. The brakes on your Corvette use a combination of vacuum pressure and hydraulic fluid to stop the vehicle. A brake booster is needed to help provide additional stopping power to the basic hydraulic system. While all of the components on the Corvette's braking system are designed to work (theoretically indefinitely), nothing is actually capable of working forever without maintenance or replacement. But, before you replace any brake parts, troubleshoot the problem with your Corvette brakes.

Instructions

1

Start your engine. Press and hold the brake pedal. If the brake pedal slowly loses back pressure and sinks to the floor, then you have a leak in the system.

2

Check all areas underneath your Corvette for any fluid that has an "olive oil" color to it. This is brake fluid, unless you dumped olive oil on the ground under your Corvette. Trace the leak back to either a failed brake line or slave cylinder at the wheels. If there is no leak, the problem may be an internal leak in your master cylinder. The reason you are not seeing any fluid is because the fluid is blowing by the internal seals, causing a slow loss in brake pressure.

3

Check the pedal effort. The Corvette uses a power brake booster instead of a hydro booster to apply additional braking power. When the booster has failed, brake pedal effort will be increased dramatically. You will have incredible difficulty slowing your Corvette down and will need to apply a lot of effort to the brakes. When this happens, you need to replace the brake booster.

4

Check for any feedback or vibration in the steering wheel while braking. This indicates that your brake rotors and pads need to be changed. Confirm this by looking at the rotor surface. If the rotor surface (which are easy to see on the Corvette because of the large wheels) is scored, corroded, or pitted, or if the brake pad material is less than 1/8-inch thick, replace the brake pads and rotors.

5

Check your dash for the ABS light. If the ABS light comes on, there may be a problem with the ABS system. Confirm this by pulling down on the fuse panel cover with your fingers, pulling the fuse for the ABS system using the fuse pullers in the fuse panel, and checking to make sure that the ABS fuse isn't blown. If it is blown, replace the fuse. If it isn't, then you need to have your ABS system serviced by a mechanic.