My brakes feel terrible and I've only had them on for about 5000mi. I have to push the pedal hard to get it to stop, I really noticed it the other day when I drove my dad's maxima. I almost locked up his tires when I went to slow down, I know my car used to feel exactly the same as his, A firm feeling brake, doesn't take excessive force to slow down. I had the shop that did my brakes check them out and the only thing they said was wrong was that one of the caliper pins was frozen and they want $50 to lube the front pins. How can I free up the pins myself, is there anything I can do to make my brakes feel better?

 

I just got done doing all of my brakes. I replaced my rotors and pads and re-greased the caliper pins and it was easy. Especially if you only need to do one wheel. Take the rim off, completely remove the bolt in the back of the slide pin you need to regrease, loosen the other caliper slipe pin bolt, swing the caliper off the rotor and pull the slide pin out of the caliper slip the rubber boot off and regrease. Don't put too much grease on, you need a little air to make a tight suction. Check out www.motorvate.ca and look under the brakes section. Direction and pics should help. good luck

 

My question to you is what KIND of grease, exactly, did you use to grease the pins with? The pins are surrounded by rubber bushings, which expand in the presence of generic petroleum grease. Once they expand they trap the pins, which then no longer slide and your calipers basically freeze up. This is a little know fact, but has serious consequences. If you didn't use special rubber-to-metal brake grease, or some other specialized SYNTHETIC brake grease, you have a problem. Go to a really specialty auto store (i.e., not Pepboys) and ask for metal-to-rubber/sythetic brake caliper grease. Expect a few blanc stares and a few people telling you any bearing grease will do. Ignore them and keep looking for the right product.

If that isn't the problem, you may have a failing brake booster.

Hope this helps.

GregS

 

P.S., if this is your problem, you'll have to remove the old grease, and also replace the rubber bushings/gaskets that surround the pins.

 

I used a high heat synthetic lithium-like grease used especially for brake and caliper parts. You should have no problem finding this.

 

i have the same problem with my brakes, i thought the fluid was low or my brakes were finished but thats not the case i have to push my brake pedal really hard to roll and stop......it sucks, what if the caliper pins arent the problem?

 

When you say push the pedal "hard" do you mean the pedal travel is excessive or that it is very firm to push... if the travel is excessiv and the pedal is mushy - you might want to flush out your brake fluid. You might have some air in the brake system - it also would be a good chance to get some fresh brake fluid into the system.

 

What pads are you guys running?
I just got rid of my Axxis Metal Masters because my stopping power was dwindling off as they wore down. The pad was a little over 50% gone.
A fresh set of TRW metal pads made an huge differance in my stopping power. My brakes grab like they should now. Keep in mind that a performance oriented pad stops better when there hot. They resist fade a lot more under heavy braking, but your trade off is usually in initial bite.

 

I'm not sure what kind of pads I have. The petal is mushy and takes a lot of force to push down and stop the car.

 

Sounds like you have air in the brake lines... bleed the brakes and see if that helps.

 

I agree you've got air, the shop didn't bleed your brakes properly! Your symptoms match exactly to air in the system, I'd take it somewhere else if your not comfortable doing it yourself and ask them to bleed the system. There is a certain order to bleed the entire system that off the top of my head I'm not sure of, but any reputable shop should know that. Although I've never tried them a lot of ppl here swear by speed bleeders, good luck, let us know what you find out, but I'm betting it's air in the sytem.

 

Like njmmaxseltd also said - different pads will bite your rotors differently - so even after fixing the mushy-pedal feel problem - you might not get grabby brakes - that depends heavily on the brake pads. If you didn't do the brake job yourself (likely since you don't know what type of pads are on the car) - the shop might have used some really cheap (read as hard) pads - which last a long time (read as lifetime warranty) - but therefore do not bite well and therefore have poor stopping power.

 

the travel is excessive on mine....im almost pushing the brake to the floor to get a complete stop

 

Yeah, I have the same problem. And what really bothers me is when I'm at a red light my foot gets tired from pushing it down so hard. If I let the pedal up a tad my car will roll forward.

 

Black Maxima - whats your idle speed when you are sitting at a red light... when my idle speed was staying high (dirty/sticky IACV) - my car would keep trying to inch forward - and I would have to apply a good amount of pressure on the brakes to keep it from doing that - its amazing what 150-200 RPM can do in terms of the torque you have to counteract by the brakes...

Again - be specific when you say pushing down hard - do you mean push the pedal a long way, or apply a lot of pressure (but not necessarily a lot of pedal travel) or both... since they are caused by different things.

 

Try bleed the brakes (or have them bled) - my local dealer charges 100 bucks for a complete brake system flush - its not hard to do yourself - but you have to remove each wheel, and you need 2 people unless you have speed bleeders.

If that doesn't help alleviate the problem - you might have a problem with the master cylinder.

 

Thanks for the reply...

I do not know my idle rpms at a red light. I'll have to check that out.

If I'm driving down the road, I have to push the pedal down a LONG WAY to slow down/stop. If I'm at a red light, complete stop, I have to push my brake pedal down far and hold it there. I would say I am also holding it down HARD because if I let it go just a little bit my car will roll forward.

Hope that makes more sense.

I just got new rear rotors, e-brake cables, and rear pads at the dealer.

 

Black Maxima: get back with the idle speed... you might have multiple things going on, since the travel is excessive, you probably have air in the brake lines too, and if you're really having to stomp down on that pedal to keep the car from going forward I'm guessing you'll find that your idle speed is a little high... like I said, its amazing what a different 150RPM makes...

 

OK, thanks for the help. I have some things to do now.

 

Is your car ABS? And when you did the break job did you let the master cylinder get empty? If you happend to do this then you have to take it to the dealer and let them bleed your car unless you have a brake scan tool. ABS is a pain if you let it drain completely. But if thats not the cast then just do a normal brake bleed.
You can also do a gravity bleed. A gravity bleed you won't need two people. It will take a little bit longer but it works just as well. All you have to do is open up the bleeder screw and remove reservoir cap and on the master cylinder. You'll eventually start to see a stead stream of fluid drain from the screw as the air is pushed out. Once that happens tighten it up and move on the to the next. This works well. Make sure your reservoir stays full.

 

Didn't know this would work ... interesting - does the fluid come out of the fluid forcefully enough that you can tell it is a stream -or does it dribble out? (I guess you could still use a hose over the bleeder to capture the fluid).

 

Yeah it works good especially if you don't have an extra hand. The fluid will dribble at first untill the air in that line is out. After that it'll be a stead flow coming out. I'd us a pan instead of the hose unless its a clear hose. The only this is when the fluid starts to flow out the bleeder screw it doesn't come out with force.. So don't step on your brake pedal while doing this, you'll just put air back into your lines.

 

it'll flow like a stream, it doesn't shoot out. Just clean up where it drips on.

 

Good info PRPmax,

 

Had this same thing happen to me. My dad had a shop replace the rotors and pads at the end of last year. The brakes were kind of dragging to the left so I just replaced the pads and rotors in the front this past weekend. Turned out the caliper guide pins on the driver side were sticking and this made the outer pad worn out.

Cleaned and regreased the pins, but it's still dragging sometimes on the highway. I guess I'll just have to replace those 2 guide pins since I'm tired of having the wheel drag to the left at high speeds and don't want the outer pad worn again The brake feels way better than before with the new pads

 

whew that took a long time! but it was worth it. the rear ones took a very long time but the fronts weren't too bad. i guess i had no choice since i didnt have somebody there to step on the pedal. oh well, it's like night and day!!