Oh the brake woes!

After doing a 5.5 to 6th gen. BBk upgrade, now I don’t have any brake pressure whatsoever! I have to floor the pedal all the way down in order to hold the car in place.

Parts are..reman. 2007 calipers from Advance along with new slotted rotors and SS lines from Rotorpros. The swap is for front only.

I installed everything correctly (along with a nice cut and a black eye from hitting the tow point in the rear).

I bled all lines 3 times with the help of a friend (he pressed the pedal three times and held it on the third while I opened the valve and closeed it up before he lets go of the pedal). One thread here even had a similar problem but he had Z32 calipers and the problem turned out to be the calipers were on the wrong side. I’m not sure but the bleeder valve on a 6th gen. caliper is supposed to be facing inside (towards the engine), correct? I have checked all lines and there are no leaks. And I did disconnect the battery before I bled anything.

After reading many threads here, I’ve come to a conclusion that I either need to:

a. Bleed the lines by myself with a hand vacuum bleeder.
b. Bench bleed the M/C (should this be done while the it’s attached to the booster and someone else pumps the pedal with the two lines attached OR should it be off the vehicle?)
c. Rebuild the M/C OR replace it with a reman. or used?

I would usually just do all of the above but since work is going through overtime and I only have weekends to work on the car, I am short on time right now. Therefore I’m in need of help from you guys.

 

Rebleed your brakes the same way you did before.

Only this time...

1.) Make sure the reservoir is topped off.
2.) Have your buddy pump up the brake pedal until he can't anymore. Tell him to HOLD the pedal down. Just pumping it three times may not have gotten all the air out.
3.) Open the bleeder screw, and wait for his reaction. Tell him to keep holding his foot on the pedal, even after the pedal sinks to the floor, until you see no more air coming out, or the fluid stops draining. Close the valve. (It sounds like this is where you screwed up...)
4.) Repeat this process until no more air comes out of the bleeder screw.
5.) On every 3rd or 4th repetition, stop to make sure there is enough brake fluid in the reservoir. If it goes dry, you'll have to start all over again.

Also, did you bleed them in the proper order? Passenger rear, driver front, driver rear, passenger front?

http://shiftice.com/bleed_brakes.html

Go there if you're still confused.

 

double check they are not on backwards..i think they are labeled left and right.

 

You couldn't install them backwards without the brake hoses being upside down on the caliper...

 

did you mess with the m/c at all?

sounds like the vacuum line going from the m/c to the intake is not connected or broken.

is the brake pedal nice and firm or a bit spongy?

when you press the brake pedal, does it stiffen up right away or does the pedal travel down some before pressure builds up? If the latter, you need to re bleed the brakes.

 

First make sure you don't have them on the wrong side. Top off the m/c with fluid. Open both bleeder screws, and leave it open until fluid starts to drip. Close both bleeders. Pump the brakes until it gets really hard( no homo). Bleed both sides, and you should be good

 

Wow. So much advise here. You've either got air in the lines from improper bleeding mehtod, a leak or both.

 

I bled once all around then went around twice again. On the last round, I bled them until I saw clear and bubble-free fluid for two consecutive repetitions. I've bled brakes plenty of times before but this is the first time where I have almost no pressure afterwards. I thought that air can only get in the M/C if it completely goes dry. Mine went down to little bit below the MIN line but that was during the second round..so if any air got in there, wouldn't it have been pushed out in the third and final round?

The pedal is mushy when the car is off. However, the pedal goes down all the way down when car is on.. like it has no pressure whatsoever.

I'm sure it's the right side or else the SS lines would be facing the bumper instead of the firewall, right?

I've checked all around for leaks to no avail.

 

Calipers.are on the wrong side dude. Had the same problem.

 

Is there a way to determine this?

 

1. caliper can be installed on the wrong side. bleeder screw is supposed to be to the top side of caliper.
2. old brake fluid which was exposed to moisture.
3. air in brake lines

 

2 and 3 sound ineligble since it was cold and dry here yesterday. So I'm thinking the Advance Auto parts team labeled the calipers wrong.

 

Told u your issue already man. Been there done that. Went through a whole bottle of fluid before we got pissed and did a search and figured bleeder was in wrong spot. Advantage was by then wed purged the whole Damn system :/ . And got to start on a new bottle. :/

 

did u bleed them in the correct order? i had the same issue on my Z32s until I bled all 4 corners in the correct sequence.I think it's

RR
LF
LR
RF

 

FIrst thing I will do is check if the bleeder is on the bottom. If it is, then change them both out so that the bleeder is up top, right? HOw come it has no pressure with it being on the bottom?

I think I'm going to bench bleed the M/C on the car while I'm at it. Should I rebuild it with a OEM kit or it should be fine after 10 years?

Yeah I did farthest to the closest.

 

i have no issue w/ mine and they are installed correctly, as far as that order, its hogwash, thats from personal experience, my pedal didnt get any firmer. i just made sure i started from the rear (i always start from teh right rear) the left rear then front right then front left...rear to the front is what i do

thought i had a pic of the brakes installed w/o the wheel on but i dont, here's the best installed pic i have..



good luck

 

Hey one of your is lug missing

 

lol its been missing, since i had those rims and now..at that time one of my studs was stripped. PM headed your way

 

Hey guys,

Is there any other place other than the stealership where one can buy the MC rebuild kit? $75 for a small kit is just ridiculous!

 

guess you havent tried napa

 

Do they carry the kits? I couldn't find anything on their website.

 

they might, is there one local you can go to?

 

Update:

So after two weeks of unavailability of fixing this problem, I finally got around and had my buddy help me bleed the system.

First, I switched the two calipers so the nipple was on top.

Then I bench bled the M/C on the car. There was alot of air coming out of M/C but it went down after about 15 pumps. Still couldn't get air-free fluid to come out.

Lastly, I bled the system from the four wheels. I only had to make one round for air-free fluid to come out.

Now the brakes are working but they are very spongy and they squeak/squeal when I make a hard stop. With the car turned off, I can get the pedal to firm up really stiff.

Is the M/C shot? Or do I need to bleed the system again?

 

Keep bleeding the brakes. There is obviously still air in the system somewhere and I doubt your MC is the problem.

 

The pedal gets stiff because you have no vacuum in the booster with the car off. Keep bleeding the brakes, if you have abs there is more lines than you think that have to be bleed of air. Your on the right track now that you switched the calipers to the right sides (with the bleeders up). Just keep bleeding untill you get all the air out man.

 

Did you Bed you Pads and Rotors yet? Thats the crazy squealing your hearing I bet. Keep bleeding and then hit an empty road when your down.

 

How long do you guys recommend bledding? I saw air-free fluid after about opening up the bleeder 4 times.

Yeah I did it exactly how Hawk recommends them.

 

keep going until you have the proper pedal feel.

 

Are you bleeding the rear brakes too? Since you opened up the lines for the master cylinder, there's a chance you got some air in those lines as well. I would bleed all the wheels again (those rear brakes deserve new fluid too!) and try it again. Also, like everyone said, make sure the bleeder screws are on the top of the calipers...it needs to be at the top of the caliper to properly allow air to escape, if it's at the bottom it won't come out. Think of tilting a bottle of water upside down to try to get the air out. What happens? The fluid comes out, but the air stays in. It's kind of the same thing. Just ensure the bleeders are at the top of the caliper, bleed all the lines until there's bubble free clean fresh fluid and give it a go.

 

Yup had the same problem, couldnt figure out what it was cause i looked under only one side of my car and saw that the caliper was on correctly, nipple on top, i figured the other side would be ok too. Turns out that the other one was for the same side, thats how i bought them from a junkyard, i just didnt notice it when i installed them. But after finding new ways to curse out my brakes, i got the correct caliper and rebled them and it took a little while cause all those prior bleedings didnt get a lot if any air out since it was trapped due to that one caliper being upsidedown, I say keep bleeding and you'll be fine. Your MC should not go bad when doing the install... GL