Last night I swapped out my old rear pads for some new OEM rear pads. Now the brake pedal is mushy and doesn't grab till about halfway down. Did I do something wrong?? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

 

Did you open any lines? If you did you need to bleed the brakes!

 

yup, it's just air in the lines, just bleed them

 

I didn't touch any of the lines at all, I just put the pads in, could they be seated wrong??

 

what pads did you install?

 

Did you put both pads on each side

 

what pads did you put on, when i have endless pads on the pedal gets really mushy,
with my nissan pads the pedal is so much stiffer, its night and day with those pads.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by walker111 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Did you put both pads on each side </TD></TR></TABLE>

haha.....yeah

I screwed the piston in and out like 100 times because I thought it needed to retract further in, could this have damaged the caliper or brought air into the system?

Edit: I used OEM pads

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RGoose18 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">could they be seated wrong?? </TD></TR></TABLE>
yup... did you make sure the pistion was lined up so that the tab on the back of the inner pad slid in ok?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Willard &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
yup... did you make sure the pistion was lined up so that the tab on the back of the inner pad slid in ok?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I made sure both were at a right angle (+)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RGoose18 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just put the pads in, could they be seated wrong?? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, it's also possible that the slider/pins need to be greased, check the tabs that hold the pads as well. Did you retorque everything to Helm's specs?

How thin were the pads you replaced? And you compressed the piston correctly? Nothing is leaking?

 

Put some stainless steel brake lines while your at it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SilverDc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Put some stainless steel brake lines while your at it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

How does that help his issue?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1GreyTeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

How does that help his issue? </TD></TR></TABLE>

because i noticed sometimes when you change your brakes the pedal gets a bit softer, to compensate for the stiffness

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SilverDc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

because i noticed sometimes when you change your brakes the pedal gets a bit softer, to compensate for the stiffness</TD></TR></TABLE>

huh? that made no sense.

Solve the first issue before adding more variables.

 

when i did my pads the pedal felt kinda odd right after too, like not as stiff as before, but after i bedded the brakes it got way better. i aslo used a syringe to take out some of the old fluid from the reservoir and put some fresh fluid in there.

just check to verify that everything is good, especially the rears, those are a bit more tricky to line up. if you dont see anything wrong and worst comes to worst go ahead and bleed the system. good luck

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SilverDc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

because i noticed sometimes when you change your brakes the pedal gets a bit softer, to compensate for the stiffness</TD></TR></TABLE>

ok ya lost me there bud

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1GreyTeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yes, it's also possible that the slider/pins need to be greased, check the tabs that hold the pads as well. Did you retorque everything to Helm's specs?

How thin were the pads you replaced? And you compressed the piston correctly? Nothing is leaking?</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is real noobish, but what are the sliders/pins, this is my first pad install

 

The pads arent bedded. go out and bed them and should get hard again in a day or so.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RGoose18 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

This is real noobish, but what are the sliders/pins, this is my first pad install</TD></TR></TABLE>



Pins #15 & #22, sometimes get sticky or stuck and don't move freely, if you look at the seal kit #1 which includes the little dust boots for those pins, and then look at the same boots near #17, check to see if the pins and boots are sliding and releasing properly. And make sure the boots aren't twisted, ripped or damaged.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by R you serious &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The pads arent bedded. go out and bed them and should get hard again in a day or so. </TD></TR></TABLE>

This could also contribute but I was assuming that they were bedded in properly.

Another idea just to try is after all is rechecked and made sure affixed and torqued properly, with the ignition off, just pump the brake pedal a few times till it's solid, now let off the pedal and start the car, let it run, pump the pedal and see if you can feel a difference. Go out and rebed the pads for ***** and giggles and come back and let us know. Just remember after bedding the pads that they will fade slightly and you will not have a super firm pedal and stopping distances will be longer. Let the car cool for a few hours, then go out and drive it for a bit to feel it all out again.

Start with small things that you know you did, check and recheck them and take your time. Sometimes a clip could be misaligned or something silly. Make sure Not to add more variables. If you didn't bleed fluid, then Don't. Make a list of everything to check, and go over it closely maybe even twice, and use the Helm's manual as your guide.

Best of luck

 

I'll give that a try, quick question, is there any way to grease the rear caliper piston, it seems to be getting stuck when trying to screw back it back in, it goes, but w/ a little resistance unlike the other side

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RGoose18 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'll give that a try, quick question, is there any way to grease the rear caliper piston, it seems to be getting stuck when trying to screw back it back in, it goes, but w/ a little resistance unlike the other side</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm not sure, I've never had to mess with mine and I've only had to change my rear brake pads twice with no issues thus far.

I do also recall an issue that rodney had when he had the Type R sussy, brake setup on his civic that if his rear pads got low the pedal sunk more noticably than the fronts, as well he had to adjust the Emergency brake cable to get a better feel (this procedure is listed in the Helm's). He did mine so I unfortunately can't help you with that though

 

if everything was done right. you might have to pump your pedal couple times it should be ok..

or you might have to bleed it again

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1GreyTeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">



Pins #15 & #22, sometimes get sticky or stuck and don't move freely, if you look at the seal kit #1 which includes the little dust boots for those pins, and then look at the same boots near #17, check to see if the pins and boots are sliding and releasing properly. And make sure the boots aren't twisted, ripped or damaged.


This could also contribute but I was assuming that they were bedded in properly.

Another idea just to try is after all is rechecked and made sure affixed and torqued properly, with the ignition off, just pump the brake pedal a few times till it's solid, now let off the pedal and start the car, let it run, pump the pedal and see if you can feel a difference. Go out and rebed the pads for ***** and giggles and come back and let us know. Just remember after bedding the pads that they will fade slightly and you will not have a super firm pedal and stopping distances will be longer. Let the car cool for a few hours, then go out and drive it for a bit to feel it all out again.

Start with small things that you know you did, check and recheck them and take your time. Sometimes a clip could be misaligned or something silly. Make sure Not to add more variables. If you didn't bleed fluid, then Don't. Make a list of everything to check, and go over it closely maybe even twice, and use the Helm's manual as your guide.

Best of luck </TD></TR></TABLE>

Hey thanks alot for all your help, I'm gonna check all my work tomorrow and clean and re-grease the sliders/pins you were talking about. I really appreciate it

 

Did the pedal go down alot further than normal on the first application? The brake master cylinder seal can be damaged if the pedal goes down too far when bleeding the brakes, or after a pad install.