Hey guys.
I searched around the archives but when I would click a thread it would say, "No posts found." or something. So I'll just ask it here.

I test drove a 96 sedan for my sister last night.
I have a 99 Si with upgraded brakes but I havn't driven a Civic let alone a car in about 5 months. So when I drove the car it would have a late brake engagement in my personal opinion. From the brake pedal, about 25% of the way down almost nothing happens, if I go slightly lower, once again nothing really happens much but I can feel a slight brake; but as soon as I go all the way down with the pedal the brakes activate fairly well. It's hard to do a steady consistant decelleration because of the oddness in pedal to brake reaction.
I'm quite sure people have had problems such as this.
Any ideas?

Also since we're on the subject; it has 105k miles.
Besides timing belt, plugs, and wires what else do you think I should consider under the hood in replacing for high-mile precaustions.
One more thing, the car is an LX, I think it's a d167y? There's a semi-noisey ticking from what I think is the valves, sounds like it's got an agressive cam in there; this normal?
Thanks.

 

i have the same problem,'

im pretty sure it's either the brake rotor and pads or done or there is air in the brake line.

im personally gonig to bleed my brakes first, and then replace drum pads, and then replace the front pads and rotors.

 

I have no idea if it's the drums or not, never owned drums to feel what the wear of them are like.
But, have you maybe thought it was the master cylinder?

 

Ok, first the brakes:

Maybe you don't have enough brake fluid in the system. Open the master and check.

You may also have air in the system. Now, air does not appear magically in brake lines. So you need to find out if the calipers or lines were removed at some point. If so, you may need to bleed the system completely. Also, the wrong fluid may have been put in there. But in most cases, you should have a mushy feeling to the pedal also.

also, your brake pads or shoes may be very worn. DO you hear grinding or hissing when you apply the brakes?

Could be also that the brake booster is bad, or its check valve is leaking.

Now for you 105k tune-up, i tend to wait for things to break instead of replacing them, but you could:

replace the 02 sensor,
drain brake fluid
drain coolant
drain tranny fluid
grease everything
inspect suspension
inspect all hoses and belts
etc...

Now as for the ticking, that depends... I would have to hear it in order to provice advice to you.

fs

 

When applying brakes to accutally stop the vehicle I hear no noises, and it feels great. It'st just that the brake to pedal feels super odd, because it engages late, and when it does enage it's like I've almost stompped on the brakes, there's no smooth constant braking.

The fluid level is fine, I doubt there's air in the lines, but could be.
Brake booster and check valve locations? So I can see for leaks, thanks again.

 

I forget the exact terminology for it, but it's possible that the rotors have become "glazed" for lack of the proper term.

It's when the brake pads heat up and "melt" to a certain extent onto the rotor, giving the rotor a glazed look, and can effect braking.

That happened to my 98 DX, and I had the rotors ground down, and the brakes felt a lot better.

 

1. check for low fluid (fluid level goes down with worn brake parts)
2. check for worn parts (front pads, rear shoes, rotor thickness)
3. check for a leaky/weak MC. with the car off, pump the brake pedal. it should get rock hard and not want to move much. my accord's MC failed after 70kmi, my friend's teg failed after 90kmi