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jlathem · 02-10-2017, 07:53 AM

February 2016 I replaced the hydrobooster on my Trendsetter 25 because it was leaking power steering fluid and also put on new rotors and pads. The booster was a rebuild from A1 Cardone bought from Oreillys. Drove to Alaska and back around 11,000 miles. At 3,000 miles in British Columbia, I found the front pads were worn out. At Anchorage they were worn out again and replaced rotors, pads and warranted the booster. Found that every time you press the brakes they don't fully release, so every 5 brake uses the brakes lock and you wait for them to bleed off. Changed the booster again in Colorado. Wound up putting 4 boosters as 3 sets of pads and rotors before I found the problem.

Started looking for a new booster and found a company that makes them for muscle cars and they knew the history. It seems Bendix made the booster, who was aquired by Honeywell and eventually the rebuilder A1 Cardone.

Someone redesigned the piston and it required a 3/8" shorter rod to actuate the master cylinder, so the brakes just drag. They supplied these rods at first but eventually stopped. When I told Cardone's tech support what i had found they sent the right rod with the new spring.

All I needed was the right information. Cardone and o'reillys were helpful, best campsite I found in Alaska was in the back of O'reillys where I had access to all the parts I needed. I hope this helps someone out there scratching their head on a problem like this.

Unplanned Tourist · 02-10-2017, 11:14 AM

Wow, I hope you got some warranty for all that, not to mention your time and frustration!

Did you do all the work yourself?
Something you don't expect when replacing parts that are correct numbers, etc. I bet your gas mileage suffered a fair bit also.

Good that you found someone that knew what was going on.

jlathem · 02-11-2017, 03:22 PM

Cardone was having problems with some of their rebuilds so O'reillys and Cardone both thought the problem was with the booster. O'reillys provided power steering fluid and I wound up with an extra booster when we were all finished. I imagine it cost me $2,000 since I did most of the work myself. When you consider the remoteness of where we were and not having to tow it, I am ok with the way it turned out.