Car: 1991 Civic STD, brakes were fair before pad/rotor/bleed. Rear is drum and needs adjusting.

.....

The other day I decided to replace my pads and rotors, and while I was in the same spot, I thought it a good idea to bleed the front brakes.

Fine, did that with my POS Mityvac (don't ever do this, these are junk) tool.

Finished up, went to test the car and the pedal feels terrible.

.....

Ended up having to find a bleeder monkey and did all four wheels (in proper order), which still didn't help.

Pedal can almost go to the floor upon hard braking, I can lock up the drivers side front - but that takes most of the pedal travel.

.....

So now I'm thinking I've either a) bad master cylinder or b) stuck front caliper.

Thoughts?

 

everything was ok before you bled them?

i'm going to guess that you need to keep bleeding. at leat to rule that out before you go swapping out parts.

you're bleeding correctly?

 

The system was mediochre, but not like this. You may be correct.

afaik, I'm bleeding properly, the way I have always done it. Any tips appreciated.

I may just replace regardless, the cyl/calipers are 15 years old and the system was not in the best shape when I got the car.

It's my autox car and I'd rather be safe than sorry for a couple hundred bucks.

 

I wonder if you had bubbles make their way up into the master cylinder while you were monkeying with ****.....
I know it's a pain in the ***, but if you bench bleed the MC, then work from corner to corner and eliminate ALL the air (will take forever), then you can rest easy that you eliminated that possibility.
Odds are that the MC or booster didn't just happen to fail when you changed pads.

 

my guess is your caliper pistons were probably corroded and whatnot. when you put new pads on and pushed the piston back in, now that previously exposed portion of the piston surface is contacting the seal, and not providing a good surface to seal.

doesnt seem like a MC issue at all. and that this is right after putting new pads on, it makes sense. it also seems like you could still have air in the system. lastly, you should check if your brake lines are ok. someone recently had that issue, but it was contantly locking up. you should still check.

btw, i agree, never use a mity vac. pos waste of time and effort. just get a bleeding monkey everytime. teach someone how to help you in 10 seconds and be done with it in 15 minutes.

 

I picked up some new calipers and a master. Not that much $$$ at pep boys.

Bench bled the master, tried the ".RJ method" (with t00b of course) of bleeding by myself, which was looking pretty good, but there's still air somewhere.

Need a bleeder monkey, 'tis the only way. That is this evening's project.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mahatma &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Odds are that the MC or booster didn't just happen to fail when you changed pads.</TD></TR></TABLE>



---

I wonder if I can *ever* expect the brakes to feel as good as my Accord? Something tells me no..

 

Brakes are now functional again.

I'm sure it just needed lots of bleeding, but now I have new parts and it stops like a champ.

I did use the mityvac again, but this time with only one pump of the handle for a *little* vacuum.

I found that after about three pumps I would get a leak from the bleeder threads which was no good..a combination gravity bleed/mityvac worked!

Thanks for the help!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tyro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Need a bleeder monkey, 'tis the only way. </TD></TR></TABLE>

what's a bleeder monkey?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eda6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what's a bleeder monkey?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Serious?

The person who pumps/holds the pedal while you turn the bleeder screws!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tyro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
The person who pumps/holds the pedal while you turn the bleeder screws!</TD></TR></TABLE>

well, i really do use a monkey. theyre easy to train too....

 

Do you find yourself having to move the seat up/back for the little guy? Or do you use a monkey of the larger variety?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eda6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what's a bleeder monkey?</TD></TR></TABLE>
The person who sits in the car to push on or lift off the pedal at your instruction.

Edit: I was too late. That's what happens when you open a reply window but have to take a bathroom break before posting.

 

sits on the floor. i toss him a banana every time i need the pedal released.

 

I figured you would have to send him a treat after the pedal is pressed, or he might get distracted and you would end up with air in your lines!