I own a 97 mercury mystique. This happened yesterday(February 5) when I went out of town on a 30 mintue trip.As I was driving back home I noticed that the brakes were getting hard to step on and the car took longer to brake and to make a complete stop.I also noticed some smoke and the smell of something burning from the front drivers side tire..So I kinda figured it was the brakes.Since I was close to home I just went ahead and kept on going instead of stopping and letting the brakes cool down.Wrong thing to do.So I got home and when I checked on it the brake rotor was a bright ass red color as well as the brake pads.About a minute later I heard air escape and wasnt sure if it was the brake line or the tire,so I waited a little and noticed it was the tire going down.Im not sure how the heat of the brake rotor couldv'e had caused the tire to deflate.So then I asked my dad for help to see if he could find out what the problem was.We took the tire off and inspected the rotor and the brake pads.The rotor was still good but the brake pads were worn down a bit.We went ahead and took off the caliper to get it changed since we thought the caliper froze and wasn't good enough anymore.Somehow there was no brake fluid coming out of the hose as we thought it wouldv'e had after taking the caliper off..Went to autozone to buy a new one.We got home only to find out it wasn't the brake caliper.Before putting on the caliper we turned the car on and stepped on the brakes.It was still hard but once my dad stepped on it really hard the brakes went back to normal and they weren't hard anymore.Also the brake fluid started leaking out of the brake line where the caliper was at.So we put on the same brake caliper since it wasn't that and went ahead and put in the new brake pads.We returned the brake calipers and now we aren't too sure what the real problem is with it.We think its the big black drum thing under the hood right above the steering wheel.Im not sure what its called.Does anyone know what the problem could be?Any help is appreciated.

A rubber line could have collapsed and prevented brake fluid from exiting the caliper. I'd replace them and see.




its an old concept. time for something new to take the reigns. - Z yaaaa

We didnt quite check those but it might of been that Im not sure.We inspected the master cylinder and the brake booster.The cylinder seemed ok but the booster seemed to get stuck when pressing on the brakes while the cylinder was off and it made this weird popping noise before going all the way.We replaced the two front brake pads,put in new brake fluid,bled the lines and tested it.We drove it and everything seemed alright.The car brakes braked as they should and the caliper didnt seem to get stuck anymore.Btw we had to push the caliper back in because it was a little bit out causing the brakes to hit the rotor.We will keep on drivin it and hopefully the same thing doesn't happen again.Thanks