EGR Valve and Proportioning Valve
 

I took off the other day and about a mile from my home, I smelled a horrible burning smell and then my truck also died. Thankfully, I got to the side of the road. After the vehicle stopped, smoke started pouring out from both front tires. After I sat there for a while, I felt the car move backward, which I assumed my brakes had locked up and just unlocked. I was told that there was only two things that could have made both of my front wheels lock up at the same time....the master cylinder or the proportioning valve...My master cylinder was still full. I do not see anything leaking anywhere around either the master cylinder or the proportioning valve.

I had two check engine codes that said to replace the ICM and the EGR valve. We replaced the fuel filter and have been having problems every since. I had replaced the ICM in the past, so I just exchanged it for a new one. I cleaned the EGR valve (because I didn't have the money to replace that until now) and sometimes it will run okay, but not very often. Most of the time my vehicle will die every couple of minutes. I would have to sit for about 5 minutes and it would start back up again. I got the idea of taking a screw driver and tapping on the EGR valve slightly to see if that did anything. And instead of having to wait five minutes or so before it would restart again, it would start back up immediately when I did that. Would a bad EGR valve cause my vehicle to keep dying like this?

Yea the egr can kill the engine. One thing you can try is this. Remove the egr valve,then plug the top hole with a piece of rubber etc then start the truck up,it'll spit out any old chunks of carbon etc thats causing it to stick open. If you still have issues then its time to replace it.

For the brake thing,Id replace the master cylinder 1st,Its 20ish bucks for a reman one. If thats not it,it may be the proportion valve. But make sure the brake lines at the calipers arent blown etc.

What caused the smoke? Was this from the front brakes locking-up? If so, then the brake fluid, probably rotors and perhaps pads should also be replaced along with either the master or prop. valve. The rotors might be able to be turned-down...but if they got that hot!!!! The pads at least need a bit of surface scraping to get the glaze off of them.

If the smoke was not the brakes locking-up...then what was the smoke from if no leaks from the master or prop. valve?

Put on EGR Valve and Was told brake problem was ABS control module
 

I bought a new EGR valve and it seemed to fix the vehicle dying problem....so far anyway.

I told a guy the issue with my brakes. I very rarely have working brakes now. My brakes go all the way to the floor with little help stopping. But every once in a while they will work for a second. The guy said he didn't think it was my master cylinder or proportioning valve. He asked me if my ABS light was on, which it is. I had the ABS codes read and there were 8 of them. He seems to think it is the ABS control module causing the brake problems. Any thoughts?

My brake problem ended up being my master cylinder! Thanks everyone for the comments.

I have a thought. Dont ask that guy about car issues anymore.

The only way the pedal can go to floor is master cylinder or primary brake line fail. So if there's fluid still in the reservoir, it's ALWAYS the master cyl
- The reason the fronts locked up in the first place could be contaminate in brake fluid impeded return of piston. That COULD also have been the prop valve but 'pedal to floor' points to junk in MC. I'd have the whole system flushed.

An old boss of mine had a 89 Tbird Supercoupe with the -then- new Teves MK II high pressure abs system {no longer used AFAIK}. His brakes quit on him once due to ABS failure. The pedal got rock hard.

It was a stupid design for a fail safe system and I cant believe all cars with it werent recalled for replacement. The new systems allow brakes to work even if every part of the ABS goes haywire I think.