I changed my rotors and pads for my front. (i did the rear like 15k miles ago) and flushed the system (speed bleeders). My brakes are excellent. however the pedal gets pushed down significantly before i feel the pads make contact.... anyone know how to fix this? I found this on a sentra SE-R website:

Master cylinder staging

If your pedal feels mushy even after careful bleeding with new thick pads, you may need to adjust the master cylinder staging. This is basically the free play of the pedal to the rod that operates the master cylinder piston. You can adjust this inside the car up where the pedal linkage goes into the m/c. There is a jamb nut on the rod and an adjusting screw. Adjust the rod longer to reduce the play. Leave some play in there so that when the brake fluid expands with operating heat the brakes won’t drag. If you over do this adjustment the brakes will drag causing massive overheating and you could ruin everything!

 

This might be what I was looking for. Can someone else make sure I can do this on my 96 Max? And how hard would it be?

 

have u tried stainless steel brake lines?? they seem to be the added firmness felt when pushing on the brakes. hope this helps!

 

Did you make sure the notch on the rear calipers are positioned correctly and line up with the nub on the pads?

Did you check all the guide pins for binding?

Rebleed the brakes with the help of a friend - do it the old fashon way with a hose, don't rely on the speed bleeders for a perfect bleed. Keep the hose on the speed bleeder turned upwards so that if the system pulls back at all, it will pull fluid, not air. Make sure the master cylinder does not run dry while you bleed.

Your better off bleeding with a vacuum pump then speed bleeders, personally I don't like them.

 

yes you can do do that on maximas (to the best of my knowledge). I'll look at my car today and see if I can't figure out exactly how its done.

 

mushy/spongy means you have air in your system, make sure you bleed it correctly if you have ABS. the brake system is self compensating. take out your slide pins and clean them up and put some silicone on there. inspect the caliper boots and make sure there isnt any rips. and if you forgot to do this. take out the brake pads and sand down the back side where the paint is. remove the paint, and put silicone on the back side of it. and put silicone on the piston and seat area for the pads. this will make sure you wont have any premature squeaking.

 

I think its my master cylinder. 'just brakes' wants to charge me 39.99 for a vacuum flush... im considering it. also, i can just buy a reman. master cylinder for $55 at autozone. i believe my master cylinder is the original, and is 137k miles old. eventually i will upgraded to ss brake lines but i should still get the firmness from the rubber ones...

anyone know the difference between the tokico master cylinder and the nabco master cylinder? i have the nabco one.

 

My rear drivers side brake overheated and didn’t change the brakes right away, kept driving it. Since then, I’ve replaced all brake pads and the hose that got burnt in the overheating. My brakes have been bled and still feel mushy. I’ve also replaced the brake booster and the master cylinder. What else could be wrong when you say everything could be ruined?

 

did you have issues pushing the brake caliper cylinders back into the caliper? Check the cylinder boots for leaks? Typically if braking is still mushy/easier than normal braking contact, then there’s an air pocket or leak somewhere in the line.
did you make sure to secure the brake fluid reservoir cap and the bleeder nuts?
maybe the overheating damaged part of the brake line where you haven’t checked?

 

You do realize you're replying to a post that's almost 20 years old, right?

Are you doing this work or is a garage doing the work? Chances are you still have air trapped in the lines somewhere and it needs to be bled again.