my brake peatal in my 91 LX sedan is spongy and when i stop the pettal will slowly go down to the floor. when it does, i can feel a diagonal feel like the Left front wheel is locking and the right front wheel is'int braking at all. backwards for the rear. i had another honda civic LX, an 89, that did the same thing and evreyone said it was my master cylinder. what can i do or where do i go from here? i'm a electronic / electric guy and know nothing about brakes or hydrolics

 

Sounds like you have air in your brake system...
If thats the case then u need to bleed your brakes..

 

try bleeding out the brake system. Usually when the pedal drops to the floor after braking its the MC. if you already swapped it out you should try bleeding the brakes in the correct order.... many posts on this.

 

ok bleading the breaks didnt help. now the petal goes straght to the floor and i have like 1 inch of petal travel where the diagional breaks work.

Plz help me out on this . i'm scared to drive it like this and it's my daly driver

 

Master cylinder. Hondas have dual circuit hydraulic braking systems. Each circuit is connected to one front and one rear brake in a diagonal pattern.

 

ok does that mean one is bad? what do i do to fix it?

 

you need to replace your master cylinder. it is a cake walk to do. and your car should have whats called a "split-diagonal" brake system. the S.A.E. says cars have to have this incase half the mastercylinder fails. to maintain good braking. lf/rr on one channel, rf/lr on the other channel. get a master cylinder, call over a few friends, get a haynes manual, or if you can afford it, get a helms. it is a cake walk. youll be ok.

 

I told my friend about diagonal braking systems, and he tried to make fun of me. "Why in the world would they make it like that?! Chevy doesn't do that! Honda is stupid!" I said every manufacturer does it, because imagine the fun of the front brakes failing and only having rears...in the rain...at night...at 80mph. I could never convince him.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by drdisco69 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I told my friend about diagonal braking systems, and he tried to make fun of me. "Why in the world would they make it like that?! Chevy doesn't do that! Honda is stupid!" I said every manufacturer does it, because imagine the fun of the front brakes failing and only having rears...in the rain...at night...at 80mph. I could never convince him.</TD></TR></TABLE>

tell him he has noo idea what he is talking about. split diagonal brakes have been around for a long time.

 

Oh, I told him that. He's one of those "figure it out my damn self" guys.

I told him not to put the 350 in the 86 jag, but he wouldn't listen...

 

talk about thread hijacking, but have seen the smallblock jag swap. its kinda cool. i am looking for when the split-diag brakes were started. i know the "G" body general motors cars were and they started in the mid 70's.

 

how much $$ are we talking? how long would it take for a hoe-hum guy like me?

i am in colage so i have the michel system (a 25 CD car library) and i can get students to help me. but i have never done somthing so critical before

 

you are talking about 80-100 maybe less for the cylinder + like 5 bucks in fluid,
youll need a 10mm line wrench, and a 12mm socket with extensions and maybe a swivel. take the lines off with the 10mm line wrench, then take off the 2 12mm nuts holding the mc to the booster. remove. put the new mc in a vice, put fluid in it, push the piston with a phillips with your fingers over the ports, keep pushing it till you get fluid only out of it, reinstall, bleed the brakes starting with the right rear, then left rear, then right front then left front. i know this is vague, but if you dont feel comfortable doing this, you mey need to seek assistence.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedcivicsir &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you are talking about 80-100 maybe less for the cylinder + like 5 bucks in fluid,
youll need a 10mm line wrench, and a 12mm socket with extensions and maybe a swivel. take the lines off with the 10mm line wrench, then take off the 2 12mm nuts holding the mc to the booster. remove. put the new mc in a vice, put fluid in it, push the piston with a phillips with your fingers over the ports, keep pushing it till you get fluid only out of it, reinstall, bleed the brakes starting with the right rear, then left rear, then right front then left front. i know this is vague, but if you dont feel comfortable doing this, you mey need to seek assistence.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah a 10mm flare nut wrench is a must. Can you bench bleed the mc in the car?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DieMaster &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how much $$ are we talking? how long would it take for a hoe-hum guy like me?</TD></TR></TABLE>

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com $153

 

AHH thats such a releaf! i thought that was one unit; the booster WAS the MC so i would have to take that whole thing out and off the petal ETC... that's good to know. thanks!

if i have any problems i'll repost here.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eda6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Yeah a 10mm flare nut wrench is a must. Can you bench bleed the mc in the car?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes you can. i know a trick to do w/o bleeding the wheels, but thats not for a n00b.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedcivicsir &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

yes you can. i know a trick to do w/o bleeding the wheels, but thats not for a n00b.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Can you explain or send me a pm.

 

well i got the MC instaled yesterday and blead the wheels. the petal feels normal and it dosent stop on a dime but they work and feel normal.

i do need to flush the system because the new fluid is a light yellow and the stuff that came out was a brown - wisky colour. it hope thats normal for 15 year old fluid.

finaly i wana say thanks to all who helped me on this. as my colage teacher says "i have more confidence in you then you do in your self." i am feeiling confident enough for a engine swap any way thanks again

 

congrats man glad we could help.