Killtodie Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I'm having issues with brakes, my hand brake and brake pedal feel. About 2 years ago I had my front calipers replaced, one of them was seizing up. I had slotted rotors installed and street pads installed. Just recently I was trying to bleed my brakes because the pedal felt too spongy. My rear bleeder valve broke off so I bought new wheel cylinders, new drums, new pads, a hardware kit and new brake lines to replace all the corroded ones. They metal ones, not the flex ones. After I replaced everything and bleed the system I have no improvement on brake feel. The pedal is just as spongy as it was before. Now, the brakes do work very well, I can defiantly lock up the fronts (ABS fuse removed) but the hand brake, even after being adjusted, will not lock up the wheels at all. I make this compression because my dad has an 03 Civic EX, (I have an 01 EX) and he has much better brake feel and his handbrake will lock up the rears no problem. Now, the handbrake does work, if I pull it and drive forward the rear wheels will drag and I did just install new pads and rotors and only drove around the block, I dont know what the break in period is for drums. I did hear the adjuster click a few times on each side when pumping the brakes. What upsets me is that this car has always had a spongy pedal, all the other cars I've driven had much better pedal feel, worse brakes, but better feel. Why is my pedal still spongy? Might I have a bad flex line? Or what? Now, I also had my ABS not work for 2 years because the rear sensor were clogged with dirt, this is something I cleaned today, I need to put the fuse back in and see if that fixed it. What can be causing this problem? I'm looking to get steel braided brake lines but they are too damn expensive and I dont have the funds right now, plus my dad's car doesnt have them and like I said, he has much better brake feel. Before and after Update: I drove around and broke em in, the car definitely brakes better, I think I need to readjust that arm inside the drums, I'll give that a try and see if that fixes things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poonamt93 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Most likely you just need to bleed the air out of the system, that's it. Air compresses causing the pedal to drop whereas fluids do not compress. Brakes should always be bled after a brake job. Never assume the worst right off the bat like a bad master cylinder. Any components on a car with fluid should have the fluid checked FIRST. I highly recommend you take the car to a mechanic if you don't know how to properly bleed brakes. On the other hand, you could have damaged the master cylinder if you didn't take the cap off of it when installing the new pads. Or if you pressed the brake piston back into the caliper incorrectly you could have damaged the piston causing a leak. Those are just guesses though if air in the system isn't a problem cause you never stated exactly what you did to the brakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raley Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 First off, fluid does compress. Just not as much, second the braided lines wont help and can actually hurt a dd. You cant see the wear in them. Your rubber lines are probably wearing out, but most likely you still have bad fluid (old) which has moistire in it... thats what brake fluid does. Or you have air in the lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killtodie Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 I've bleed the brakes. And I readjusted that drum arm thingy. I turned it like one and I could just get the drum back in place so its as tight as it can be. Pedal is still mushy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgogo Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 flush your system! What color is your brake fluid? is it brown, black? you need to fully flush all that old ish outa your system, you have water, chunks of rubber, etc all of which compress or turn into gas at operating temperatures. Also while your at it I would replace your rubber lines with STOCK RUBBER lines, braided are..... special haha. I use braided myself, however the lines I have are not cheap lines (cost more than the damn calipers), and im still thinking about putting OE rubber back on. A way to test teh MC is to apply a heatgun to the cyl till its a little warmer than it would be if you were driving the car (under hood temps), then press your pedal, at full lock the pedal should NOT continue to sag and depress, if it does the seals on your MC are bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killtodie Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 It's been flushed, fluid was light in color, nothing wrong with it. I inspected the brake lines, they are fine, no visible defects. I poured almost a full quart through the system. I want to replace my line with braided ones but that should not cause my current problems, like I said, my dad has almost the same car and he has much better brake feel on a completely stock system. As far as the MC is concerned, I unbolted it, there are no leaks between it and the brake booster. 2 Years ago when I was getting my front calipers replaced at a shop, the mechanic first said my MC was bad so they started to replace it, then they said that it was fine and infact the front caliper was seizing up intermittently. Now, I was told that I should open the bleeder valve, readjust the drum arm, put the drum back on and then re-bleed the rear end. Is that correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgogo Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 It's been flushed, fluid was light in color, nothing wrong with it. I inspected the brake lines, they are fine, no visible defects. I poured almost a full quart through the system. I want to replace my line with braided ones but that should not cause my current problems, like I said, my dad has almost the same car and he has much better brake feel on a completely stock system. As far as the MC is concerned, I unbolted it, there are no leaks between it and the brake booster. 2 Years ago when I was getting my front calipers replaced at a shop, the mechanic first said my MC was bad so they started to replace it, then they said that it was fine and infact the front caliper was seizing up intermittently. Now, I was told that I should open the bleeder valve, readjust the drum arm, put the drum back on and then re-bleed the rear end. Is that correct? there wont be when its cold, however just try like I said and warm up the MC and try it again. Alum expands 2.5X as much as steel at the same temp, so you might be getting blow by at operating temp. Also braided lines when they fail... fail spectacularly. Rubber when it fails is usualy a pinhole. Also by disabling the ABS lockup I have heard that it can leave one of the solinoids partially open, however im not 100% sure on that (reason I will never buy a car with ABS, TCS, STM, ETC ETC ETC). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killtodie Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Even when I had ABS, spongy pedal feel. Its been the same from day one of ownership Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killtodie Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 Does the ABS modal have a separate bleeder valve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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