Coolant <--> Brakes?

Maybe I'm going out of my mind, but after I added coolant (yes, it went
into the coolant reservoir) it seemed like my brakes were more responsive
or something. It's gotta just be in my head, right? . . . right?

 

....did you know which type of coolant to add to the reservoir?

And you're right, refilling the coolant has nothing to do with brakes. Do
you mean by "responsive" that the initial grab when you press the brake
pedal might be like the car is braking harder than what you'd expect with
that amount of force on the pedal?

Mine does that slightly on the first couple of stops if the car isn't driven
over a couple of days. I thought it might be a little surface rust on the
rotor faces.

 

How much coolant did you have to add?

Did the idle speed or smoothness of idle change? Power brakes get an assist
from the engine vacuum. If there is any vacuum leak, the brakes might be
affected. Did any hoses get moved when you added the cooant?

Then there's the coolant temperature sensor which affects a bunch of
patameters, including engine vacuum.

Oppie

For correct response address, remove -nospam-
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The level had dipped just below the MIN COOL line in the reservoir
so that I got an occasional "LOW COOLANT" indication on the dash when
driving up steep hills this week. I put in about 300 ml to get it just
a little below the MAX COOL line. Didn't seem like much.
I used Prestone's DEX-COOL GM approved (whatever it all means)
coolant.

Engine seems to run the same as before, it just seems like the
pedal grabs sooner than before (even when I put my foot down on the brake
before I turn the ignition key).

Well, I guess I should just be happy things are going well (knock
on wood) . . .

 

Well, I just learned a little about coolant and Saturns (thanks to the
newsgroup folk). There's a couple of versions of ethylene glycol. Some use
Dex-cool (a strange 'chemical cocktail', orange colored version of ethylene
glycol) that lasts 5 years, and some use plain, bright green ethylene glycol
that lasts a couple of years. They cannot be mixed. Your model year and
the color sticker on the reservoir determines which is right for your car.
I think yours is a 98 and I'm thinking Dex-cool is correct. You should
probably mix it 50/50 with demineralized water before adding. I found this
link interesting...

http://www.amalgatech.com/technical/Dexcool.htm