What's up with my brakes?

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Ok for the last day or two my "ABS" and "Brake" lights have been staying on all the time. Today, I left work for my lunch break and the brakes were fine. When I came back out to my car the pedal was rock hard and I had to stand on it just to get the car to slow down (good thing I didn't have far to go). When I left work, the brakes were fine all the way home until I had to slow down to go through a small town, and the pedal got rock hard again. A little ways up the road I was putting on the brakes just seeing what it would do, and it all of a sudden went from being very stiff to normal. It did this a couple times and then it was fine the rest of the way home. Is my master cylinder on its way out or what?

Sounds like a bad relay ? Does the ABS light go out when the brakes work ?

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Grey 88 5 Spd. 16" Cobra wheels, G3 130 AMP ALT. New Hella Fog lights, Gillis valve @ 15 PSI,6"Front mount K&N, PST front end kit, Performance Plus brakes, Pro 5.0 shifter,Kirban5005,Walboro 255...(gutted upper, ported lower, ported E6,a237,T3/T4oe,all waiting for action)

Classic symptoms of a bad pump relay. BRAKE and ABS lights come on if hyd. pressure is low, and also if fluid level in the MC is low.

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Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 23 psi, forced air intercooler, water injection, bypass valve, Ranger roller cam, subframes, etc., etc.. // 86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP nitrous, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.... // 91 Escort: Bone stock winter car // 04 Taurus Duratec (wifes car)

It was the relay in my sons car that had intermittent "hard pedal", like Jeff and grey88smokin said. http://www.turbotbird.com/FAQpage/FAQpag..._Diagnosis

I have owned several supercoupe Tbirds and all have had this same problem. The problem is going to either be with the aformentioned pump relay, or with the accumulator itself (more than likely). I think they are around $100.00 and are fairly easy to change out. Of course, check the relay first, but if the relay is good, then the accumulator is shot!!

Good luck!!Phil

Well, where is the brake booster relay? Somebody on turboford said there's two relays on the firewall right above the master cylinder but I don't see anything that looks like a relay.

They are right under the vac. tree. They are hidden under a plastic cover mounted to the firewall with two very small nuts. Then pop them out of that plastic piece, with a screwdriver. I believe the relay for the brakes is the relay closer to the nose of the car and the ABS is the one closer to the firewall.
HTH