Shockingly Bad Brakes

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

just brought the car out of the garage for the first time in six years.

 

and the brakes are totally shockingly bad, i mean i put my foot on the pedal and it goes nearly to the floor and the car keeps on going??

 

its had new pads and relatively new disks on the front there is plenty of life in the rear shoes (drums on rear). it has also had new pipes all round including flexis and has a new m/c (406 one i think).

 

brakes were all bled properly with new fluid.

 

if i pump the pedal it goes firm so i cant really see whats going on?

 

any ideas?

 

mot tuesday and there is no way this will go through like this

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Bleed them again, check for leaking fluid.

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

just checked for leaks, there are none.

 

will re bleed it again tomorrow.

[Baz 421]

Sometimes they do really need a damn good bleed, eventually you may find a big clump of bubbles come out and transform it!

 

Otherwise, are the pads actually bedded-in to the discs etc, as they are new they won't feel that great initially.

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

Sometimes they do really need a damn good bleed, eventually you may find a big clump of bubbles come out and transform it!

 

Otherwise, are the pads actually bedded-in to the discs etc, as they are new they won't feel that great initially.

 

could just be that baz, they are new pads and have done about half a mile from the garage to my house.

 

trouble is i wont be able to bed them in before the mot, its a catch 22 situation

 

just hope they are in a good mood at the mot place

 

still trying to sort out the hunting issue too.

[blessed6383 0]

when i last had to bleed mine they were still a little soft so i used a breaker bar to hold the pedal down over night and they seemed to be ok next day after another bleed

[All Praise The GTI 3]

is the servo working??

[Baz 421]

If booked in for an MOT then you are technically insured to drive the car etc of course, so you could take a slight de-tour, taking the 'long route' to the station to get the pads bedded-in a little better before arriving at the test centre.

 

I usually go for an easy drive, and ride the brake pedal for an eightth to a quarter of a mile or so, then leave them for a mile or so to cool again, repeat a few times, will bed the pads in and gives the discs a few heat cycles so they have less of a chance of warping when they get a proper pasting!

[Cameron 16]

Silly question, but worth checking - what order did you bleed the brakes in? You need to start with the one furthest from the MC and work forwards.

[rescue dude 0]

Sounds like air in the system to me.

[hengti 2]

would guess pads or air; is that mastercylinder suitable? as that can also change the pedal

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

didnt get a chance to sort the brakes today as i was busy sorting the exhaust.

 

will bleed properly tomorrow as im not sure on the way i did it (possibly fronts first then rears).

 

i have a 405 m/c not 406, which was reccomended by people on the forum? and i realise using this will increase pedal travel but at the mo i have bugger all with my foot to the floor.

[MrG 3]

we bled mine last year and it was ok, but I had a garage do it in Jan and the difference is night and day, maybe thats what it needs?

[GLPoomobile 958]

When you swapped to the 405 MC did you adjust the servo pushrod?

 

It could be a combination of factors - a bit of free play before the servo pushrod makes contact with the MC, air in the system, and fresh pads that aren't bedded in. That was certainly the case on my car. Took a hell of a lot of bleeding, but eventually got to the point where I thought it was about as good as I was going to get, but was still spongy. Took it to the MOT on new discs and pads, but gave them some bedding in on the way, and it went through no problems.

 

Now the only problem is the slightly longer travel, which Dan Taylor noticed straight away when he drove it, and he thinks the servo needs adjusting to take up some of the slack.

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

When you swapped to the 405 MC did you adjust the servo pushrod?

 

It could be a combination of factors - a bit of free play before the servo pushrod makes contact with the MC, air in the system, and fresh pads that aren't bedded in. That was certainly the case on my car. Took a hell of a lot of bleeding, but eventually got to the point where I thought it was about as good as I was going to get, but was still spongy. Took it to the MOT on new discs and pads, but gave them some bedding in on the way, and it went through no problems.

 

Now the only problem is the slightly longer travel, which Dan Taylor noticed straight away when he drove it, and he thinks the servo needs adjusting to take up some of the slack.

 

i dont think so . twas a couple of years ago when i put it on.

 

how the hell do i go about it?

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

i dont think so . twas a couple of years ago when i put it on.

 

how the hell do i go about it?

 

Remove the Mc and you'll see the pushrod inside the servo housing. I think the earlier Haynes has reasonable guide on adjusting including the increments required to do so.

I'm using a 1.9 MC with 307HDI brakes, I have a long pedal travel but opted to leave the pushrod alone as if done incorrectly is quite boring to have to readjust.

I can say though that during my reshell and on the previous car when refilling the system takes 1L of fliud. I ended up using around 2L through the system to fully bleed it.