Dear Aftermarket, Improve the Brake Pedal, Please!

[Porpoise Hork]

I've had European cars - VW (the best brake pedal actuation feel on earth), MB, BMW. I've even had European cars while living in Europe.

None of them had a soft pedal feel like this... not where the first inch or two is basically NOTHING.

Know what car does have that feel? My 2002 Chevy Tahoe. Actually, the Tahoe is better now because I refreshed the master cylinder and replaced the cracked 18 year old lines.

To get a better brake pedal feel on this ranger, a big brake kit won't do much. The master cylinder and boost design needs to be addressed. More line pressure at initial press.

Interesting. Both of my GTI's (Mk IV and Mk V) had a similar pedal feel as the Ranger as did my wife's 2010 X5.

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[TORQUERULES]

My brake pedal was mushy when I first got the truck, but firmed up after a month of driving. I do not notice any mushiness now.

As mentioned by a few above, all vehicles are different and once you drive it you get used to it and it is not a hinderance. Either that is what has happened in my case, or over time they firm up.

I can get in my wife's Mazda, and Mazdas are well-known drivers vehicles, and I notice very little difference.

I have long legs too, maybe that helps?

 

[JKocot]

GSB 21-7002 possibly addresses this.

 

[TBR17]

These are my other brakes so while not the best, certainly not the worst.

 

[XLT and me]

Brake pedal feel absolutely sucks. It has nothing to do with stopping distance. It has everything to do with drivebility. It is the worst feel of any brakes in any vehicle i have driven in 40 years, which is a considerable amount. The best description i can give is that it is similar to 4 wheel drum brakes that are in dire need of adjustment. I think instead of using pressure to modulate the brakes, they use pedal travel to modulate stopping power. They really suck trying to drive in tight curvy mountain roads.You CAN have a great pedal feel without them being "touchy" Ford dropped the ball on this.

 

[TremorOwner]

Yes, yes they did. It's these kinds of things that make buyers go to the non-American brands. Oops.

 

[dmeyer302]

If pedal feel is the most important thing about your truck, I'm sure there are some Ridgelines out there that need to be adopted. The rest of are out here using our trucks and haven't given the pedal a second thought after the first week of driving.

 

[importfighter01]

I run 6 psiton PB Brakes and they're not $5000.

How noticeable was the difference?

 

[TremorOwner]

If pedal feel is the most important thing about your truck, I'm sure there are some Ridgelines out there that need to be adopted. The rest of are out here using our trucks and haven't given the pedal a second thought after the first week of driving.

Ug...

 

[Jrel209]

I've had European cars - VW (the best brake pedal actuation feel on earth), MB, BMW. I've even had European cars while living in Europe.

None of them had a soft pedal feel like this... not where the first inch or two is basically NOTHING.

Know what car does have that feel? My 2002 Chevy Tahoe. Actually, the Tahoe is better now because I refreshed the master cylinder and replaced the cracked 18 year old lines.

To get a better brake pedal feel on this ranger, a big brake kit won't do much. The master cylinder and boost design needs to be addressed. More line pressure at initial press.

Completely agree, my VW jetta brakes are a thousand times better and its 11 yrs old. The brakes on ranger dont bother me much, but sometimes i feel like it lets off pressure at times. Not sure if thats a concern lol.

 

[TremorOwner]

What's annoying is the pedal is so useless for braking power for the first like half of travel but if you release the pedal slightly toward that useless area the damn start stop starts the engine again. So if your foot gets tired or you want to shift yourself... poof the truck starts even though you're still stopped. Not great computer programming, either. It's a thing you deal with DAILY, Ford...

 

[RCMUSTANG]

How noticeable was the difference?

No mush. Not overly touchy. Just right.

 

[spartan0078]

but if braking assist engages the pedal firms up significantly allowing the truck to stop much better.

I have the impact alarm set to high on mine so it goes off quite a bit on me threading the needle ?.

I can confirm it is a significant difference. It fucked me up a few times since there's way more braking power than normal and you end up going way harder than you want!

 

[Porpoise Hork]

What's annoying is the pedal is so useless for braking power for the first like half of travel but if you release the pedal slightly toward that useless area the damn start stop starts the engine again. So if your foot gets tired or you want to shift yourself... poof the truck starts even though you're still stopped. Not great computer programming, either. It's a thing you deal with DAILY, Ford...

Just disable auto stop/start with forscan or one of the eliminator kits out on the market. This was the first mod I did to mine. Drove it home and ordered one the same day.

 

[c72k]

If pedal feel is the most important thing about your truck, I'm sure there are some Ridgelines out there that need to be adopted. The rest of are out here using our trucks and haven't given the pedal a second thought after the first week of driving.

When some paid over 40k for their truck, id expect pedal feel to not have so much travel before engagement. Does not have to be a racecar to expect that. Ppl that try to rationalize all the flaws of the Ranger are why Ford can continue to half ass some of these things

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