DCRB

Still dialing in my car, recently had to suddenly become stationary and while i stopped ok my pedal fell pretty far to the floor in the process and my brakes have been feeling mushy so I figured I'd bleed them

Bled both fronts last night (rears work fine, just replaced both rear calipers a few weeks ago and bled them a lot) and they felt about the same as far as pedal travel goes, but then noticed when i got off the freeway my pedal was very firm and brakes were very touchy, and my drivers wheel would lock up if i pressed the pedal too hard.

any ways i got to where i was going, got out and my wheel was pretty hot which is how i knew something was up. when i got back in my car the pedal felt fine (about and hour and a half later) then after the 5th or so time of applying the brakes the pedal was back to very firm and touchy.

I bled them like this: engine on, passenger front then drivers front, 10 pumps each side in two repetitions, i do the self bleed mode where i run a hose from the bleeder nipple to a bottle with some brake fluid in it and keep it submerged.

the pedal does not feel like it would if the booster vacuum line was disconnected, so for now i'm ruling that out.

Is this a classic case of needing to adjust the brake booster arm? or do i need to bleed some more?

here's set up:

99 civic ex (9") brake booster and 15/16ths master cylinder
90 civic ex front knuckles with integra pads rotors and calipers with the ex caliper brackets (the caliper part numbers were the same, i had both a set of da knuckles and a set of ex civic knuckles that were fully loaded at my house and compared the part numbers)
91 integra rear discs
4040 prop valve
ss braided brake lines on all four corners
knecht's ceramic pads up front, semi metallics in the rear

4drEF

This is really the wrong way to bleed your brakes.
... ... ...
Turn your engine off.
... ... ...

If you are chasing an air bubble, you need to bleed fronts and rears.
The correct order is; Front driver, passenger rear, passenger front, driver rear.


Other than that, sounds like you need to take the driver front caliper off and either replace it or rebuild it.
Seems like it is sticking.

I wouldn't think that the booster rod is at fault here.
It seems like you are saying the brakes were fine before and then they suddenly got mushy.
The rod does not need to ever be adjusted for maintenance.

DCRB

why would it suddenly stick, after bleeding? i've had these calipers on my car for over a year, used to have the da knuckles but switched to the ex ones because the wheel bearings were bad in the da knuckles.

the pedal was opposite, used to be mushy and drop, now is firm but then gets hard after a few pumps. both front wheels are doing it.

why bleed with engine off? just curious. i have had much success in the past with the car being on while bleeding

instrument

you bleed in that order because the company that created the car and its braking system tell you to?

but thats just me.

DCRB

well yeah i got that i was just curious of what the difference was between having a vacuum vs no vacuum assist (essentially what you're doing)

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

I would definitely bleed all 4 in the OEM order. However, I've had a problem like this before. The pedal was a little weak, but if you slammed it my wheels would lock up. I never did figure it out. But that car doesn't see the road anymore.

DCRB

i seem to have fixed the issue, i rebled the front wheels (still need to do a four corner bleed) and apparently my tired *** left my box wrench on the bleeder nipple, so it may have had something to do with the caliper being stuck. brakes work fine now...

i guess i'm trying to replicate how my brakes used to feel, when i had my stock front hubs with the 9" rotors and the 15/16ths mc and 9" bb. pedal was firm and really responsive but would only lock up the tires if i buried my foot in the pedal. perhaps upgrading to a 1" master cylinder will fix this issue