This summer sometime I was having some brake issues were both of my brakes are smoking at the same time. Had to towed to the shop and they couldn’t find anything wrong. Happen again last night. Both front brakes seized up I could drive but it gets real shaky and feels like I have no power. And then this morning they were fine again. Any ideas on what it could be?

 

Reads like Master cylinder issue if it effects both front brake calipers, but could be Power Booster

Front and rear brakes have separate chambers in the Master, 2 brake lines come out, rear line is for front brakes, front line is for rear brakes

Front brake line just has a splitter to feed fluid to both front brake calipers equally, there are no valves in the lines or calipers

There is 0 pressure in the whole brake system when brake pedal is up

Each front brake has a Flex Hose at the caliper, these can break internally and "act like a valve" so it won't release pressure after brakes are applied
But BOTH hoses would not fail at the same time, so not these hoses if you know BOTH calipers are effected
Same for calipers, one can fail and "stick" so stays locked even at 0 pressure but not BOTH at the same time

I would jack up one front wheel, or both
Spin the wheel so you know the friction that it has now
Start the engine
Press on brake pedal a few times and spin the wheel again
Repeat until you can get a lock up, this means you have pressure in the system
Lift up on brake pedal to make sure its not sticking down
Shut off engine
Press brake pedal 4 times, should get hard to press after the 3rd time, vacuum has been drained from booster
See if wheel is now free to spin, if so Booster may be the issue, but continue the testing
If wheel is still locked then
Don't start engine, press brake pedal down a few more times to see if Master will unlock it, if so replace Master

 

It could be the master cylinder internal piston or rod connected to the pedal is hanging up. If the piston does not get back to a neutral position, the fluid can't release back into the reservoir and the brakes can hang up. As RonD said, the front and rear brakes have separate chambers in the master cylinder, and the piston may not be timed to activate the front and rear brakes at the same time. This means it may not release at the same time either, resulting in one end sticking while the other releases if the piston is slightly hanging. Then possibly over time the piston could creep back and release.

 

Thanks for the replies. Are the master cylinder and brake booster complicated fixes? I’ll do what was suggested to try and figure out which one it is. Just drove my ranger from Alaska to Nevada and am living in the back. Wondering if either could be done in a parking lot, I have some tools or if I should just take to a shop. Thanks
Not a mechanic, but am pretty “mechanically inclined” and can follow a YouTube tutorial pretty well lol.
appreciate all the help on here