My rear caliper was sticking so I replaced both my rear calipers with re-manufactured A1 Cardone calipers. While I was at it, I replaced the rear pads with Centric Ceramics and rear rotors with Centric Premium rotors with E-coating. Prior to replacement, my old pads were Nissan OEM and my rotors were Bendix Premium rotors. I bleed the rear brakes after installing everything. I now notice that the pedal travel is further than it was previous to the new calipers, rotors, and pads before the brakes start to really grab.

What can be the cause? Is it possible that I needed to bleed the front brakes as well?

 

If you've never flushed the brake fluid before, might as well give the whole system a good bleed. Brake fluid gets less and less effective as time goes on.

Are you sure the rears are fully bled?

 

I think you did the bleeding precedure wrong,because your supposed make sure you have the fluid in your brake resovoir and it does not get empty or below the MIN line or other wise your getting more air in the system and when you change out your pads/calipers your supposed to clamp off the brake line so you don't lose the fluid coming out of the brake lines from the resovior. Since you said you just bleed the rear calipers do it again with some fluid in the resovior and then make sure it does not get empty and or below the MIN line. Make sure that your getting some one to help out to pump the pedal and you or the helper Is releasing the bleeder screws. Since you probally added more air do all 4 calipers.

 

Bleed BLeed BLeed.....

 

My mechanic told me that the front brakes and rear brakes work off of a separate system. Not sure if he's correct.

I can def. bleed the brakes again at all four corners. Other than air being in the system, can there be other factors as to why the brakes grab further down than they did before?

I was hoping the brakes would be stronger considering both rear calipers, brake pads, and rotors are new.

What's the bleeding procedure for the Maxima again?

 

yeh defiantly bleed the system out.

 

When your bleeding it make sure the res doesnt go empty.Use fresh brake fluid.....u shud be good.

 

After replacing the right rear, mine felt like that too, I had to push further before the brakes started working. After a couple days, it seemed to be back to normal. Maybe it's just my imagination.

I say bleed and drive it for a couple days and see what happens.

 

Spartuss how much did u pay for the caliper?

 

I paid $62 for each after the $75 core charge was returned to me. The A1 Cardone comes with Lifetime Warranty replacement as well.

 

like everyone said, you need to bleed. Make sure you follow the order of bleeding as specified in the FSM.

There is only one brake reservoir and system AFAIK. Not sure what your mechanic was talking about. It needs to be continually topped up as you bleed. It's usually a three person job. One tops up, one pumps the brakes, and the other bleeds the caliper. Make sure you have lots of fluid on hand.

 

What part store did u get them from? The lowest price I seen for 1 rear caliper was like almost $80

 

where do you live.

 

Mass...

 

Where in MA and what store? I'm in SE MA, and only found them for around $100 each (after the core refund) the last time I did them.

And I also say it sounds like you just need to bleed them some more. Using 2 people - just check the fluid level after doing each wheel - do all 4 wheels. That way, you get more fresh fluid in your system and guarantee you get most of the air out.

I've done my rear calipers and pads twice (in 13 1/2 years and over 194K miles), am still on the original rotors, and the brakes work perfectly.

 

I buy my parts off of this website: RockAuto.com

At checkout use coupon code 1004963884021 to receive an addtional 5% off.

 

Anyone who changes a caliper and DOESN'T bleed =

Also check the bedding of the caliper piston to pad. There is a nub on the pad that needs to line up correctly with the caliper piston that, if not correctly lined up, will cause the pad to sit at an angle where full pad / rotor contact will be lost, and brake performance will be greatly affected.

 

did you remember to pump the brakes with the car off?

 

i sorta have had that same problem with the rears, although when i did my brakes i got mine rebuilt, and my dad replaced his with OEM through automotive wholesalers. we both noticed the same differance you speak of. mine is the 96, and his is a 99. i dont know if i have just gotten used tothem, or if they are locked again, but they dont seem to be as bad, but still not what they were before i changed brakes. and i bled and bled and bled. bled through 2 quarts, same feeling. so im not sure what to do. im just trying to wer mine down so i can replace them again so yes. im braking aggressively. i did hear or ask someone, cant remember, but the back brakes affect the pedal swing and feel. thus, since the back calipers are free now, the pedal feels different. not saying this is true, but its what i heard. dad and i are still not happy with the feeling.

 

I would still bleed them again, do the whole system in the right order and also find out out to bleed the ABS too.

http://www.carbasics.co.uk/how_to_bleed_car_brakes.htm

Job for the weekend )

 

As said earlier, make sure you put some miles on them before thinking there is an issue. I replaced both rear calipers and pads last weekend, and they are much better now than when I first installed them. The instructions for the brakes said they'd need 200 miles to break in. Also, now that you've done the initial bleeding, install Speedbleeders and re-bleed the system.

 

The brakes were bled again and the peddle is much firmer now. The car does not have ABS so I do not have to worry about the ABS reservoir. Quick question though. For those with ABS, is it essential to flush the ABS reservoir or flushing via each caliper is enough?

 

i just replaced my 2 back calipers last week and they are working fine like they said before u have to have someone pump on the pedel while u bleed the break lines very easy to do. and by thr way i paid $88 bucks for each caliper

 

It seems like everyone got a better deal than me! I don't remember the exact price, but I'm pretty sure my rear calipers were around $100 each 2 summers ago in CT.

 

I forgot to mention earlier that you probably had the same issue I did....had sticky calipers that were always slightly "on", so when you hit the brakes, they really grabbed. I hated the feeling since it was hard to smoothly modulate the brakes. Replacing the calipers fixed that problem, so the initial feel seemed way different. Mine drives much better now and the fix has eliminated what I termed a "crossed up" feeling with the car when braking under certain conditions. Glad yours is working well now.

 

Shoulda looked on ebay for rebuilts. I got 2 new rears last year for 60 total, no core charge. Havent had any issues yet, just need a new parking brake cable because its stretched from time.

 

$60 for both isn't bad. I paid double but I have the piece of mind that they are re-built by a reputable brand and come with a lifetime warranty!

 

More Bleeding

 

I paid $90 for each about 3 weeks ago at Napa.


Zack