<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Odyinid:
I have had my Ody now for three weeks now and a couple of times I have been sitting at a stop light with my foot on the brake pedal when the pedal appears to sink down another 1/4 to 3/8 inch. The pedal is firm then it just sinks closer to the floor for no apparent reason???? The car does not move or change idle when this happens. Am I imagining this or is it really occuring? Has anyone else had this happen to them? Is this something that I should be concerned about? More important, am I going crazy???? 
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Hi Odyinid,
No, you're not going crazy!
I'm not sure if what I'm going to say is 100% accurate but I think it's close.
The power brakes on the car are vacuum operated. The system takes vacuum off the intake manifold when the engine is running. The engine itself is computer controlled. The computer controls many things including idle speed. It compensates for various loads on the engine, like when the AC cycles. The minute changes made in the throttle to control this, also make minute changes in the vacuue level in the engine and you feel that as a slight shift in the position of the brake pedal. It is perfectly normal and I can't remember owning a car that didn't do this at one time or another. You can duplicate this effect on purpose if you want to. Next time you take the Ody on an errand, try this when you return to the house. Pull in the driveway and let it sit for a few seconds with the transmission in drive. Then simply put the transmission in neutral and pay close attention to what the brake pedal does. If it's like mine, it should settle that short distance you've noticed. That's because you just took the load of the transmission itself off the engine and the computer compensated with the throttle to keep the idle constant.
Now, if the brake pedal ever moves significantly more than that 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch, have the brakes checked ASAP! Other than that, I wouldn't worry about it.
Take Care & Drive Safe,
Steve
