Brake pedal suddenly sticky after stepping in puddle

Wanderer2010

I got petrol earlier and i stood in a puddle of water and there may have been a bit of oil mixed in so my runners were wet when i went to drive off. But the pedals were very slippy so i cleaned off the pedals and my runners with paper towels. The other 2 pedals are fine now but the brake pedal is sticky as if it wont depress the full way. I tried drying it off with more towels but its still a bit sticky.
Im worried about this, is there anything that could fix this or is it a big job for the garage,any suggestions?

Dirty Nails

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

I got petrol earlier and i stood in a puddle of water and there may have been a bit of oil mixed in so my runners were wet when i went to drive off. But the pedals were very slippy so i cleaned off the pedals and my runners with paper towels. The other 2 pedals are fine now but the brake pedal is sticky as if it wont depress the full way. I tried drying it off with more towels but its still a bit sticky.
Im worried about this, is there anything that could fix this or is it a big job for the garage,any suggestions?

You do realise that brake pedals aren't supposed to depress the whole way?
Was the engine on or off when you noticed this?

Wanderer2010

Dirty Nails wrote: »

You do realise that brake pedals aren't supposed to depress the whole way?
Was the engine on or off when you noticed this?

Yes, I realize that. It was stiffer and harder to depress than usual and that literally only happened as some of the water/oil from my shoes went on the pedals. It happened as the engine was on when I was slowly pulling out of the garage. I cleaned the pedals a few times but Im curious as to what could cause this. Surely pedals are designed to take water since people come in and out of wet environments all the time. Im not sure what caused this.

Dirty Nails

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Yes, I realize that. It was stiffer and harder to depress than usual and that literally only happened as some of the water/oil from my shoes went on the pedals. It happened as the engine was on when I was slowly pulling out of the garage. I cleaned the pedals a few times but Im curious as to what could cause this. Surely pedals are designed to take water since people come in and out of wet environments all the time. Im not sure what caused this.

Whatever happened your car,it's 99.9% unlikely that it has anything to do with wet shoes. It being safety related,my advice would be to get someone to physically look at it. Better safe than sorry.

Crasp

OP were you just pumping the pedal 2 or 3 times until it went stiff? That's normal.

With the engine off you can press the brakes once, maybe twice, and the pedal will feel stiff and not depress as far, as the brake servo vacuum is depleted.


This could be what happened when you "tested" the brakes after drying the pedal. It could have happened again as you pulled up to the junction of the petrol station and tested the brakes again.

Wanderer2010

The thing is, my pedals were working perfect before i pulled up to get petrol so either the brake pad malfunctioned coincidentally at the very moment i thought i had stepped in oil/water or i could have pressed the pedal with the engine off for a few seconds as i pulled out of the junction.
As that poster said, i cant fully recall if the engine was on or off as i pressed the pedals. I googled it and all these things about crank valves and hoses came up! I did an experiment about pressing the pedals a few times when the engine was off and when i turned the engine back on the brake pedal seemed fine. It seems ok but im still unsure!