So I changed my rear pads and rotors the other day...I noticed the driver's side caliper was seized. I've never changed calipers before. I had a spare from the junk yard sitting around and I decided to put it on. I disconnected the parking brake, pulled off the brake line and plugged, not as well as I should of, but I didn't lose a tremendous amount of fluid.

I popped the new one on, and put everything back together. Get in the car, pump the brakes a few times and the pedal goes all the way down to the floor. Pump it some more, and it feels squishy still.

I decided to take everything off and see if I have a leak...come to find out, I didn't look at the bleeder screw...it was loose, so everytime I pump the brakes fluid squirted out. I tight the nut back up, placed everything back on, and added brake fluid to the resevoir, I had to add a significant amount, like half a bottle.

So I hop back in the car pump the brakes, bam...same thing...Me not knowing exactly how the brake cylinder/resevoir works, I decide to give it a spin to see if atleast stops; maybe it's just that one side that's squishy and maybe the stopping power is only slightly diminished. Well, the car doesn't stop properly anymore either. It has to go all the way to the floor, even with the resevoir topped, and it doesn't stopped immediately when fully depressed.

I'm guessing either I have air in the line, I still have a leak, or I possibly damaged my master cylinder. I didn't see any leaks anymore, but maybe I'm overlooking something. Maybe I'm not right about any of my suggestions, what do you guys think?

I drive a 98 maxima, if that isn't apparent by now.

Thanx

 

you need to bleed all you brake lines especially that one you just changed ASAP.

Everytime you pressed your brake pedal with the bleeder screw loose you squirted fluid out and when the pedal was released you sucked air into the system.

IIRC the order for bleeding is passenger rear, driver front, driver rear(<----since this is the one you changed i would bleed this one more then the others to make sure all air is out), passenger front.

its a two man job.
pump brakes hold pedal down then open the screw slowly let the fluid out,once pedal hits the floor close screw release pedal and repeat until firmness returns in pedal.
after each caliper you bleed make sure you check and fill you reservoir.

 

when you filled the reservoir, was it empty? if so, you have air in your whole system and you need to bleed all 4 brake lines. (not just the ones you serviced) and you need to do it in sequence.

if you didn't get air in the whole system, you just need to bleed the one caliper, it's a 2 man job or you can buy speed bleeders or a bleed kit.

air in the brake lines is a very serious thing. and it will compromise the stopping power SIGNIFICANTLY

look up bleeding brakes on google or the forum

 

I take it, this is kind of like a syringe effect (I can't think of a better analogy at the moment).

Ironically, I just did this same job with my cousin on his f-150 about 2 weeks ago. And we had to bleed all of the brakes, in the same fashion, never quite understood why.

 

Once you disconnect a brake line, you MUST bleed the system or you will have a mushy pedal. It is one of the "basics" in brakes, and since your life depends on stopping in time, you need to make sure you know what you are doing.

Either read up WELL on the subject, or have someone who knows their stuff help you, or tow it to Sears or comparable.

 

O...M...G...

 

pump man pump

 

As others have said, you're probably best bleeding whole the brake system any time you disconnect any of the hoses. Maybe you could get away with just bleeding that one caliper, but usually the fluid gets dirty and/or gathers water after a while so it's a good idea to put new fluid in as you bleed. If the fluid in the reservoir got too low, you'll need to do it several times and/or bleed the master cylinder as well.

I just replaced the rear pads and rotors on my 2000 Max, and the fluid was pretty disgusting. Thus, during the bleed process I was trying to flush out the old fluid and accidentally let the reservoir run dry. I performed a normal 4-wheel bleed per the FSM until no air was present in the lines, but naturally, my stopping power was significantly reduced - the brakes had some initial bite, but then the pedal went a long ways after that before stopping.

After reading/thinking, I'm quite sure that I had let air get in to the master cylinder/ABS assembly. It might have been possible to just repeatedly bleed the brakes several more times and get it all out, but I decided to perform an "on the car" bleed of the master cylinder. I'm sure there's some reason why a "bench bleed" is preferred when installing a new MC, but this seemed just as easy to me.

I removed the negative bat terminal, cleaned the area around the master cylinder, padded the area underneath it with lots of paper towels and then used a 1 gal ziplock bag to catch any fluid that leaked out of the cylinder. Next, I used a 10mm flare nut wrench to remove both of the output lines from the master cylinder. Then, per the FSM I had the driver push the brake gently several times while I held my fingers over the outlets to stop them from sucking air back in. Quite a bit of air came out of both of them on the first several pumps, and we had to repeat the process several times, adding some fluid as we went. The trick that worked for me was on the last stroke, when I was only getting fluid and no air going by my fingers and down in to the bag, was to have her hold the brake pedal in that position while I put output lines back on. (This was probably not necessary, and the best way is to run the two lines back in to the reservoir, but I didn't want to rig all of that up.)

After doing that, I did the FSM bleed of each caliper twice around just to be sure, and now my brakes are as firm as they ever were.

Other good links:
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/maste...hbleeding.html
http://www.powerstop.com/content.wws...eedbrakes.html

 

I think a lot of people are intimidated by brakes for obvious reasons, however it is a really simple process, just tedious and time consuming. I've done more brake bleeds than I can remember and there are just a few important things that you must do:

Put a piece of plastic tubing over the bleed screw and into a plastic bottle/jar etc. so when you open the bleed screw, there is no way air can enter the system.

Pay close attention to the reservoir fluid level, if you are not watching it and it gets low, it's another area for air to enter the system.

Sometimes each caliper takes more than one bleed process. I've often bleed all four calipers and then had to go around again a second time.

If there is ANY squishiness at all, then you have not completed the process correctly. Continue to bleed until the pedal feels very stiff. If you find that the pedal does not gain the desired level of stiffness, search for a leak. Sometimes the crush washers on the banjo fittings don't get a good seal.



Good luck.

 

I know the OP posted since March but I hope he took it to a shop or called someone that has done brake jobs before.

If you are still here OP and you are now learning about working on cars, follow the above post from Remminator and you should be fine.