23 Badlands Brake Booster Push Rod Failure

[mmhenslee]

Hey - posted a few times here but it’s been a minute since posting. I was driving home today with a small trailer towing a load of mulch in my 2023 Badlands, when someone decided to wait till the last minute to stop for a left turn in front of me.

I was heavy on the brake and actually had to give it a pump or two as one of the tires started locking up and wasn’t feeling the ABS cycle.

I got the vehicle stopped, but at the very end of the braking event, the brake pedal fell all the way to the floor and I had zero brake pressure. I was able to creep off the road and get my parking brake on, and to my surprise the pushrod attaching the brake pedal to the booster had snapped clean. I don’t know how this is even possible - I searched and saw a bunch about brake booster failures, but it looks like some sort of misalignment/ too many threads exposed causing a crack to happen?? Has anyone else heard about this?

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[Smocaine]

They must have checked you pretty good if you were braking so hard you broke the pedal!

 

[mmhenslee]

They must have checked you pretty good if you were braking so hard you broke the pedal!

I grew up being taught “you won’t break the brake pedal by pressing it too hard”. So get on it. Well they were clearly wrong… it does look like there are too many exposed threads on the pedal. I shouldn’t humanly be possible to cause a compressible failure of a metal rod.

 

[Bovas]

They must have checked you pretty good if you were braking so hard you broke the pedal!

My thought exactly

 

[zuke]

Wow, Never seen this in a modern car, have seen it plenty of times in older vehicles, But vehicles that were themselves old,, and the pedals had experienced many cycles and were well worn already, I agree this shouldn't happen in something under 20 years old and without many miles.

Did you have a beverage in your lap, or is that brake fluid on the firewall? did you possibly also rupture the seals on the master cylinder, causing the rod to get bound up, and leading to the rod failure?

 

[mmhenslee]

Wow, Never seen this in a modern car, have seen it plenty of times in older vehicles, But vehicles that were themselves old,, and the pedals had experienced many cycles and were well worn already, I agree this shouldn't happen in something under 20 years old and without many miles.

Did you have a beverage in your lap, or is that brake fluid on the firewall? did you possibly also rupture the seals on the master cylinder, causing the rod to get bound up, and leading to the rod failure?

That’s brake fluid - and that makes more sense now. No beverage in my lap… it’s under warranty at 33k miles, but still crazy

 

[zuke]

Yeah, That being brake fluid adds a whole new dimension to this, I'm thinking the rod was a secondary failure. And you've unlocked a new fear in the community for the durability of the master cylinders!

I'm hoping the dealership will let you know what they find as far as it goes, if the inside of the master cylinder is trashed, this could be a major safety concern! (And because of that, they might not be forthcoming on the failure mode )

I wonder if @Ducati1098 has ever seen this?

 

[Valhalla]

I shouldn’t humanly be possible to cause a compressible failure of a metal rod.

*le sigh*.... THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!!!!!

 

[Ducati1098]

Yeah, That being brake fluid adds a whole new dimension to this, I'm thinking the rod was a secondary failure. And you've unlocked a new fear in the community for the durability of the master cylinders!

I'm hoping the dealership will let you know what they find as far as it goes, if the inside of the master cylinder is trashed, this could be a major safety concern! (And because of that, they might not be forthcoming on the failure mode )

I wonder if @Ducati1098 has ever seen this?

I have not. Pretty crazy though.
Probably worth reporting to NHTSA

 

[MFP2241]

Except for;

- Delaminated hard tops
- Rear Shocks
- Low pressure fuel pumps
- Windshield wipers
- Cam phasers
- Infotainment glitches

- And now Brake components that should never fail

 

[POKEY the TURBO BRONCO]

Any news on how and why this Brake Booster threaded push rod failed at it's weakest point - the threaded portion of the rod ? I imagine all 6g Broncos have a similar rod no matter which booster we have and we may all have a potential for brake booster rod failure on a hard push . Guessing this Bronco was a 2.7 with Automatic , not that it matters. Hats off to the OP who was able to safely stop and concerned enough to post his experience. Knowledge bears responsibility. Well done OP.

 

[Aknobronco]

I grew up being taught “you won’t break the brake pedal by pressing it too hard”. So get on it. Well they were clearly wrong… it does look like there are too many exposed threads on the pedal. I shouldn’t humanly be possible to cause a compressible failure of a metal rod.

Did Jim Farley lower ford quality into temu tofu quality?

Have ford tow to stealership and make warranty claim and file a case with ntsa!

 

[mmhenslee]

Any news on how and why this Brake Booster threaded push rod failed at it's weakest point - the threaded portion of the rod ? I imagine all 6g Broncos have a similar rod no matter which booster we have and we may all have a potential for brake booster rod failure on a hard push . Guessing this Bronco was a 2.7 with Automatic , not that it matters. Hats off to the OP who was able to safely stop and concerned enough to post his experience. Knowledge bears responsibility. Well done OP.

Hey - so the dealer in my neck of the woods repaired the brake booster, but didn't see any physical damage to the master cylinder. For sure the towing situation aggravated the failure, but I should have been in the tow capacity of the vehicle- it was 3 yards of mulch + trailer weight. The ABS not activating was strange, and guessing the increased grip/mass played into that.... normally hard presses engage the ABS, but didnt have that happen and could hear what sounded like a front right lock up. So I went old school and started pumping the brakes until the ABS engaged. A few pumps i guess bottomed out the travel and it snapped at the very end of the braking event and kept grabbing the e brake (which i surely missed the old school non electric one.... it kept deactivating automatically) to make the thing come to a rest. Ford has the booster now and i guess will look at it. I do think this would be tough to happen in a non-towing situation as when I tried to replicate without a loaded trailer the ABS worked normally and didnt need anywhere near the travel like before.

 

[POKEY the TURBO BRONCO]

Hey - so the dealer in my neck of the woods repaired the brake booster, but didn't see any physical damage to the master cylinder. For sure the towing situation aggravated the failure, but I should have been in the tow capacity of the vehicle- it was 3 yards of mulch + trailer weight. The ABS not activating was strange, and guessing the increased grip/mass played into that.... normally hard presses engage the ABS, but didnt have that happen and could hear what sounded like a front right lock up. So I went old school and started pumping the brakes until the ABS engaged. A few pumps i guess bottomed out the travel and it snapped at the very end of the braking event and kept grabbing the e brake (which i surely missed the old school non electric one.... it kept deactivating automatically) to make the thing come to a rest. Ford has the booster now and i guess will look at it. I do think this would be tough to happen in a non-towing situation as when I tried to replicate without a loaded trailer the ABS worked normally and didnt need anywhere near the travel like before.

Thanks for the quick response . I 've been curious and concerned about that push rod failure since your first posting. Hope FORD finds an answer to why it failed so easy. My Bronco is a 2023 2Door Badlands 2.3 with 7MT non sasquatch. My booster is vacuum assist. Grew up on British Triumph sports cars with single bore Girling master cylinder and no booster. Very familiar with pumping the brakes to stop or for brake maintenance bleeding. Good thinking using the E-brake switch repeatedly to stop. Will school my wife on your proven procedure just in case. With the old Triumph TR4 and TR6 i would always keep E brake cables adjusted and rear shoes adjusted in case of cylinder or booster failure. I do so miss the manual hand brake. My thoughts- loaded trailer being towed or not - Your leg muscle was able to snap that push rod in the threaded area. That alone tells me that rod is too weak for the real world -ABS or No ABS working. I guess we will take precautions and enjoy the risk. Cheers gary

 

[Area51BS]

Bronc Buster will come out with a Brake booster push rod brace and Ford will follow up with a plastic one.

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