gosailing

!994 Del Sol. My daughter has been driving this car and there has recently been a noise in the back brakes. They have been working fine except for the noise.

I pull the wheels and started to pull the calipers. The pistons didn't want to compress, but I was able to get them off. On both, the inner pad was worn twice what the outer pad was. I tried again to compress the piston, but it wouldn't move. Bought new rotors, calipers and pads. Bled them per the book, but the pedal goes almost to the floor before getting firm. Even then, it's not spongy.

Bled/flushed them again with a vacuum pump pumping almost a quart of fluid through the system. Still, the pedal goes almost to the floor before getting firm. Car stops fine and the pedal is not spongy at all.

It seems to me that something is wrong and I don't want my daughter driving it like this. Any suggestions?

B serious

iTrader: (1)

The rear caliper pistons don't compress back in. They screw back in. Did you get new caliper slide brackets? If not, your old slide pins are probably stuck. The fact that one pad wore out faster than the other kinda points to slide pins being stuck. Remove them, clean then with a wire wheel, clean the bore with a bottle brush (steel bristles). Use brake cleaner to flush the bores out and clean the pins themselves. Use high temp brake grease. Reassemble. You can buy brake hardware packs if your pins are really bad. You can also buy new brackets altogether.

Check the fronts as well.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Rockauto.com is a better place for brake parts (better quality pads/rotors/parts than most part stores) for way less $$.

Lizardslap

just for clarification sake silicon grease to grease the slide pins not axle grease

gosailing

Calipers came with new brackets and slides pins. I saw a recommendation in another post to take the pads out and put a wood shim in and pump the piston out. Did that, screwed the piston back in and put the pads back in. Seemed to work . . . until I started it. It has good pedal until the car is started, then the pedal goes almost to the floor. Is that the master cylinder? It didn't do this until I replaced the rear calipers.

BTW, I checked the front and the slides are good.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

I use honda high temp urea grease on my cars. Lucas makes a decent high temp grease for disk brake applications too.

94EG8

Did you bleed RR, LF, LR, RF?

gosailing

Yep, several times.

Trying the gravity bleed suggested in another old thread.

Steebhouse

I think it might be your brake booster that is bad. If you change your brake booster you"ll have to bleed your brakes again.

ejallday

They're going to go to the floor after a brake job. Did you pump the e-brake to bring out the rear pistons that were turned In?

1999ej8

Maybe seals in the master cylinder are gone. Cheap fix if you buy a re-man from autozone. Im running on three years with the one I got from them. Only like $25...

belairbrian

When I did the brakes I changed everything. Master cylinder, calipers, AND Hoses.

Unless you know the maintenance history you are relying on 20 year old parts to stop a car.

I was giving the car to my son for his birthday so it got a lot of new parts.

I got my flex lines from Rock auto. Very well made and fit perfectly.

gosailing

I bought the car new almost 20 years ago (the car is the same age as my daughter) so I know the maintenance history.

After the 'gravity bleed', I bled again using 20' of clear hose so it would return the fluid back to the reservoir. Bled RR, LF, LR, RF. Pumped three times and cracked the bleeder, closing it before the pedal hit the floor (I had help). Did this about 10 times to each caliper after I saw no bubbles. Cycled through each caliper in order a second time.

Pedal is better but still not where I remember it. It does get hard - not spongy at all. Guess i'll drive it for a while to make sure everything it good.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

AdrianClayton

I would check for vacuum leaks and that all the lines are connected around the booster.