I went in today to midas to get the $59.99 brake fluid flush, and I got my 99 SI back. The brakes appear to work well as they did before, but there is a shitton more pedal freeplay... Before I dropped it off the pedal went down just a very small amount and then the brake pads would start to hit the rotors, as in just about every car i've driven.. BUT now the pedal goes down A LOT, almost to the floor before the pads hit the rotors (this is with the car running ofcourse). Even under hard brakes the brake work very well, but what the deal with this newly found extra brake pedal freeplay?.. It's kindof weird because before this car I had a 92 DX and it did the same thing with having a lot of brake pedal freeplay but the brakes still working well, just weird cuz this car never had a lot of freeplay before the fluid change.. I know that this booster to pushrod to master cylinder clearance is too much it would cause this, but WTF, why would have midas even messed with this to simply bleed out all the brake fluid and bleed in new stuff??

 

anybody know whats up with this.. why does the brake pedal go to the floor before the brakes start engaging? I was just looking in the haynes manual and the specified pedal freeplay tolerances are 1/16"-3/16" of freeplay, I have a good couple inches of freeplay (after the fluid change, it was easily between those 2 tolerances before it)...

 

yet another reason to do your own work. bleeding brakes takes a 10mm wrench, some patience, a buddy helps, and a six pack. I actually just had to bleed all my brakes in my apartment complex parking lot, took me all of 15 minutes. wish I had an answer for ya man, good luck

 

Sounds like the Master Cylinder is low on fluid, take it back and tell them to do it right this time.

 

you might have air in you lines. but who knows. i need a mc after a brake pad change. i was pretty much broke for months so i drove on worn brakes and it think it killed my mc. i have a new one to put on but im not going to do it for a cupple of weeks when i have the time.
but yah let me tell you not to trust work to anybody other than yourself. i had a the steering rack replaced in my cx because i flew off the road sideways one day and chewed up the gears. i told them to see why my steering wheel was loose too while they were at it. they had no idea why my wheel was loose. and my steering column was not bolted tight at the firewall. so i tightened that up myself. and got a new steering wheel. as it turned out the splines in my wheel had coroded off. plus you can do a brake bleed yourself for like $10

 

a full fluid flush need to be done a certain way, to allow the proportioning valve to fill all the way, all you need is some brake fluid, and a 10mm you should be able to get to the bleeders without a lift.

anyways, bleed them in this order, with the ebrake OFF.


front of car

2 4


3 1

rear of car

before you start, pump the brakes with the car off, to get the air moving towards the calipers.

loosen the first one, go to the brake pedal, and pump the brakes a few times fast, it only took me one pump. that should expell all the air from the system in that line. wait for a few secs, and tighten it back down. do the same for all four calipers, in that order. that should fix your problem. if that doesnt work let me know, and what fluid they used.

 

sounds like they didn't bleed it right and now you still have air in the system.