Brake pedal

The brake pedal is the main control you use to slow the car or bring it to a stop. It sits in the driver's footwell to the left of the accelerator, and pressing it turns the push of your foot into hydraulic pressure at all four brakes.Behind the brake pedal is a pushrod that passes through the bulkhead into the brake servo, which uses engine vacuum to multiply your effort, and then the master cylinder, which turns that effort into hydraulic pressure. The pedal itself is only a lever, pivoting on a shaft in a steel pedal box bolted to the bulkhead.A faulty brake pedal is one that has stopped being a rigid, predictable lever: it wobbles sideways on a worn pivot, sticks instead of returning, squeaks under your foot, or stops working the brake light switch. The arm almost never breaks, so nearly every fault sits in the pivot, the spring, or the switch.A car brake pedal is a simple lever in a crowded footwell, and you feel a fault long before you can see one. Match what you notice to what is likely causing it:

• Brake pedal feels loose or has excessive movement: A worn pedal pivot, elongated mounting holes, or a damaged bracket.
• Brake pedal does not return smoothly: A tired return spring or a dry pivot.
• Squeaking or clicking when pressing the pedal: No lubrication remains at the pivot, or the linkage joints are worn.
• Brake lights remain on or do not activate: The brake-light switch or pedal sensor may be faulty rather than the pedal arm itself.
• Pedal feels unusually hard: Usually caused by the brake servo or its vacuum supply rather than anything in the footwell.
• Pedal position sensor errors: The electronic sensor built into the pedal assembly may have failed.

Two things send most drivers looking for a used one: a pivot worn so far that no amount of grease will quiet it, and a front-end shunt that has bent the box.Parthunt24 sorts used brake pedal listings from marketplaces such as Ovoko, ProxyParts, eBay, TotalParts, Opisto, Ecooparts, Ricambipro, and Autoparts24 onto one ranked page, where each of the 232 offers shows its brake pedal price, its fitment, and the state of its pivot.

A pedal that bolts in is not always the pedal the car was built with.An automatic's brake pedal is wide and a manual's is narrow, because one is meant for a foot with nothing else to do, so swapping them changes where your foot lands and how far it travels.Run down this list before you commit:

• Vehicle make, model, and year: pedal boxes change at a facelift even where the shell does not.
• OEM part number: the only thing separating two pedals that look identical.
• Left-hand drive or right-hand drive: the whole box is handed, and nothing crosses over.
• Manual or automatic transmission: the wide auto pedal and the narrow manual one are different parts.
• Brake pedal assembly type: some cars sell the arm alone, others only the complete box.
• Brake pedal sensor compatibility: stability control, adaptive cruise, and regenerative braking all read pedal position.
• Mounting points and bracket design: the bolt pattern on the bulkhead and the pushrod clevis both have to line up.
• Vehicle equipment level: better-equipped cars hang extra switches and sensors off the same bracket.
• Condition of hinges and return spring: a worn pivot is the very fault you are trying to cure.

Put the car's make and model through the left-hand filters, and only the pedals that suit it stay listed. Pick one out and Parthunt24 carries you over to the marketplace that took the listing, where the seller's own description sits next to the buy button.

Once the marketplace page loads, the question is not what the pedal looks like but what happened to the car it came out of.Modern pedal boxes are built to release or collapse in a frontal impact so the pedal cannot be driven back into the driver's ankle, and that mechanism works only once, so a pedal off a front-end crash is not worth any saving.In particular, check through these details:

• Photos: the pivot bore, the pad face, the bracket welds, and the switch mount.
• Seller reputation: a dismantler who has been listing parts for years, not weeks.
• Compatibility: part number, drive side, and gearbox, all three checked before you bid.
• Included components: the arm on its own, or the whole box with spring, switch, and sensor?
• Condition: sideways play at the pivot, an ovalled bore, a polished pad, a bent arm.
• Testing: word that the pedal was swung by hand and the switch made and broke.
• Warranty and returns: insist on them, because a worn pivot only shows itself under your foot.
• Shipping: bulky and awkward, and it needs a box stiff enough to stop the bracket bending.
• Documentation: the donor model, and above all the reason that car was broken.

Where the car was broken for age or mileage rather than damage, order the pedal through the seller that listed it.

The brake pedal price turns on how much of the assembly comes with it.A used arm from an everyday model runs about €10-€40, a complete pedal box with the spring and switch €40-€90, and an assembly carrying a pedal position sensor from a hybrid or a well-equipped model €90-€180.Brake pedals for sale on Parthunt24 start as low as 5.00. What makes one brake pedal cost more than another:

• How much comes with it: a bare arm is cheapest, a full box with switch and sensor dearest.
• Sensor fitted: pedals that report their position to the ECU carry a premium.
• Drive side and gearbox: right-hand-drive automatic pedals are scarcer than the common pairings.
• Brand: a factory pedal with its number stamped in is worth more than an aftermarket brake pedal of unknown origin.
• Model rarity: pedals for the big-selling models are easy to find, the rest much less so.
• Condition: a tight pivot and an unpolished pad take the better price.

Sort the Parthunt24 page by brake pedal price and the cheap brake pedal that genuinely suits your car and gearbox is the one you land on first.

The pedal is the one piece of the braking system you actually touch, so it gets blamed for faults that are really out at the wheels. While you are down in the footwell, run an eye over these on Parthunt24:

• Brake wiring harness: carries the switch and sensor signals away from the pedal box.
• Brake power pressure regulator: balances pressure front to rear, and you feel it underfoot when it sticks.
• Handbrake lever assembly: the other mechanical brake control, wearing out its own ratchet.
• Brake discs: a pedal that pulses under braking is reporting the discs, not itself.
• Brake pads: worn pads let the pedal travel further before anything happens.
• Brake booster: what the pushrod pushes into, and the usual reason a pedal goes hard.
• Brake master cylinder: turns that push into pressure, and lets the pedal sink slowly once its seals go.
• Clutch pedal: shares the same box on a manual, so it has worn for exactly as long.

Riding the brake pedal means driving along with your foot resting on it, lightly enough that the car still moves but hard enough to hold the pads against the discs. It wears pads and discs quickly, cooks them on a long descent, and keeps your brake lights lit, so the driver behind cannot tell when you are actually slowing.A pedal that pulses, sinks, or goes hard is almost never the pedal, so have the discs, the master cylinder, and the servo looked at before you replace the lever your foot sits on.

A pedal is a lump of pressed steel, and a dealer will still sell it only as a complete assembly. Parthunt24 goes to the breakers instead: one search over the best-known used-parts marketplaces, then the brake pedals for sale line up with their part numbers, their drive sides, and their prices already visible.Parthunt24 sells nothing. The breaker who listed the pedal keeps it and takes your money, while Parthunt24 does the searching once, so you never have to type your car into a second site.Filter to your car and its gearbox, and the cheapest brake pedal price for it rises to the top. Compare prices, pick whichever fits for least, and get the right brake pedal on order today, no phone calls required.