heres the story.

I had a growling coming from the rear rotors, Replaced them with some ebay zinc plated blanks and threw on some duralast gold pads.

Regreased everything on each caliper..Seemed ok for about a week.
Then the growling starts up again.So i replaced the rear calipers..
Bled the lines accordingly [with speed bleeders]

So i have new pads, rotors,bleeders and new rear calipers.
master cylinder looks very new as well.

Took it for a drive after all those new parts and i have worse pedal feel than before i replaced everything..Very spongey.

Am i missing something ?

 

air in they system if the brakes feel spongy.. you need to bleed again OR change the brake fluid entirely..

 

Have you not tried bleeding the system again?

Have you bled or flushed the entire system? If so, do it in the proper order?

 

could be air in the lines what about bedding tho, i noticed it really bad when i did a brake job on my 95, after a couple of hard stops everything firmed back up.

 

Check the lines were they bolt to the caliper for leaks. If still there bleed it in the proper order again. if it's still there bleed it in the proper order with an assistant, no speed bleeders.

 

Yea, Don't use speedbleeders. The only correct way imho. Is to do a proper 2 man bleed or a least a power bleed.(which is always never great) Also check your front brakes just in case and bleed those as well.

 

Yeah,like everyone else said, just bleed again. Nothing else really is the fix.
Start from the furthest from the slave cyl and work your way up.

 

IIRC, the 4th Generation Maxima has a strange bleeding order: RR (right rear) -> LF -> LR -> RF based on the FSM.

 

Speed bleeders FTL..... air is obviously still in the system.

 

yes this is way to bleed them..pass rear, drivers front, pass front, and then pass front.I only used the speed bleeders for the rear though..Hopefully this is my issue.

Since its been agreed that air in the lines is thee issue...How many times should i have to bleed in a worst case scenario?

 

Indeed, Z33/V35 are the same way, as are many other Nissans, IIRC.

Absolute worst case? You'll never properly bleed the system.

Have you ever flushed the system? If not, now's a good time. Just get a big bottle of brake fluid and go to town.

 

I think lots of Nissans used this bleeding sequence. I know it's the same for my 04 Murano.

 

pmohr:

No ive never flushed the system i just got this car going about a month ago.

and by flushing it im guessing i would just take off one of the brake line banjo bolts and keep pumping the brake until its all out ?

And when i said worst case scenario i ment..What the most possible times i would have to bleed them..or how many pumps should be enough when i'm bleeding the lines ?

 

No, you would bleed the entire system until all of the old fluid is out.

If you removed the banjo bolt, after you 'flushed' the system your way, you'd still have to bleed the calipers and lines again.

No way to tell how many times you'd have to bleed, it all depends on how much air is in the lines. If you don't know the last time the brake fluid was replaced, I'd flush the entire system.

If you don't feel up to it, you can have a shop do it, shouldn't cost that much. IIRC Firestone does it for ~$90. Won't take nearly as long either, they can suck the brake fluid right through the lines with special equipment.

 

No..thats fine.
Im unemployed..I have all the time in the world, Just hard to find someone to help sometimes.I'll get it done this weekend, No worries.

On a side note..I pulled the e brake up and it had little to almost no resistance when i pulled it up..Would this have anything to do with my brake issues ?

and yes i checked my e brake loop and connections on the rear calipers.

 

Pulled all the way up, does it lock the rear wheels?

 

It sounds like you didn't adjust the initial piston placement on the rear calipers.

 

No i didnt...i assumed that the caliper would self adjust when
i pumped up the brake so that the piston would extend to where it needed to be.

pmohr/jdooley:
Pulled the e brake.
The rear wheels are spinning freely..
So i guess i have that to do tomorrow as well.

 

there is not adjustment......

 

f550maranello2:

have you even changed the rear brakes on a maxima ?

 

My apologies for not consulting the FSM before making my previous statement. As noted, there is no adjustment for initial position on these calipers. In my defense, other rear calipers I've worked on did have access to the screw that the piston rides on so that the initial clearance between pad and rotor could be set. Perhaps they just don't work that way anymore and I'm just getting too old.

 

ok..Well, maybe we're talking about two different things.
When i installed the new rear calipers, The caliper pistons were all the way compressed and not touching the new pads yet.
I assumed that they would compress to the new pads after some usage..
It would make sense now that you would have to adjust the piston with the square brake tool to set it.So...is is this accurate or no ??

but the wheels are spinning freely so..

 

The first time you hit the brakes, the pistons will extend as far as they need to.

The piston in the rear calipers is not designed to 'screw outwards', it pushes straight out. Turn it too many times counter clockwise, and it'll come right off.

 

I found no evidence of such an adjustment in the FSM, so I would have to say no. I guess the feature that allowed such an adjustment is on some calipers but not all. The screw behind the piston is there for the parking brake only (there is none on the front caliper) and works like a ratchet so as the piston moves toward the rotor it also makes it's way down the screw. When you activate the parking brake you're pushing on (or turning?) the screw and, in turn, the piston. With the aforementioned adjustability you were able to retract the pistons completely by simply turning the accessible end of the screw.

 

never.. in fact i dont even own a maxima...

 

Ok..So why isn't the piston coming out then?
These are brand new calipers.
I have almost no show of contact
wear on the new rotors.

 

Again, have you or have you not bled the system yet? If there is a lot of air in there, it's plausible that the caliper pistons won't extend at all.

Have you entertained the possibility that the calipers are bad? Are they reman or new?

If you move the parking brake cable lever manually, do the pistons move at all?

Have you checked to see if the pistons have moved at all from the position they were in when you bolted them on?

 

yes..My uncle is a head tech at a saturn dealership, I did the pumping and he did the brake work..the system has no air in it.We also got some oem bleeders and did it that way.

the calipers are new.
I tightened/loosened up the piston with the square brake tool tonight
and the piston is easy as pie to adjust.

and i have no clue what position the
piston was in when i first bolted the new calipers in.

 

Position as in had they fully extended out to reach the pads, or were they still seated all the way in the caliper as they came out of the box?

Again, parking brake lever? Does the piston move at all?

 

No the piston has moved and moves when i pull the e brake..Just doesn't come out enough to create enough pressure to stop the wheels.Want me to post some ex pics ?

 

Well, i dont know if this was the really "correct" way of fixing it but my brakes work fine now.

I pulled the pistons out about 1/2-3/4 inch, re greased everything, bolted them back on and now the pads are grabbing the rotors just fine..maybe the pads weren't as thick as they needed to be ..idk.

In any case thanks for the trouble shooting tips =]

 

Sometimes, rear caliper pistons have to be oriented in the right position or the piston will block the fluid passageway. Look for a mark on the piston top. ( like a line ). the line will go on the out side. ( versus toward the middle of the wheel )