I had an h23+man trans and bought a 93 auto body w/o the engine. I've got the engine installed and running properly. The body I bought was not well taken car of so we bled all the brakes before even cranking the engine (The brake lines had really nasty fluid in them, almost solid bits of gunk in there!). After we bled the brakes it seemed the brakes were stiffer and working properly but we cranked the engine and the brake softened and have basically been reduced to less then half the normal braking power.

Have I dislodged some more gunk perhaps and it's choking my brakes or do you think my master cylinder is out or is there a specific fix that I don't know about?

 

When the engine is off and you hit the brakes it seems to build up pressure in the booster until it gets really stiff, then when you start the car the vacuum will make the pedal soft and act like it will once you drive it. You probably need to bleed it a bit more...

 

i hope i can add another issue to this thread.

My brakes feel a bit odd. At times, when driving on the freeway and i brake pushing the pedal down, i feel the pedal pushing back out.

my conclusions are:
1. warped rotors. I checked my rotors and i see lines on them which to me doesnt seem normal

2. lower control arm. I had replaced the bushings on them w/ Energy suspension bushings and it looks like there is some play in that LCA. :/

3. alignment. its been a while since i got it done and i got new tires w/ rims..


4. all of the above... but which one of these will minimize that feedback i get when i press on the brakes.

i get scared some times. cause when i suddenly step on the brakes, it's like the car swerves out of control.. LCA's anyone?

 

You don't have warped rotors unless the car vibrates or the pedal tries to go in and out when you hit the brakes.

I wouldn't worry about those other things you listed until you get some new rotors and pads IMO. That won't be too expensive and will probably make a difference.

Another thing I would try (don't know how old your car is) is to pull the pins out of the calipers and clean/relube them. If one caliper is sticking it could make the car pull more to one side.

 

hmm.. seems like warped rotors to me. My car is a '92 BTW. What Pins are u refering to? Cotter pins?

im waiting to get more money to upgrade to vtec rotors and pads to my Si.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4G92 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hmm.. seems like warped rotors to me. My car is a '92 BTW. What Pins are u refering to? Cotter pins?
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No, the slide pins that basically hold your calipers together and let them slide together and back apart. Being a 92 they could be messed up....

The pins go through those little tabs sticking out on either side of the caliper and into the holes on the ends of the brackets. They have lube in there so they can slide freely, but often they get rusted or filled with crap and they don't slide very well. My brakes feel a LOT better after I cleaned out those holes and the pins and lubed everything back up.

 

OHH ok i know now.. i've never done any lubing on my car.. is it just grease? I do remember last time i changed my brakes. The pins weren't sliding so smoothly. i woud push them in and they would barely push back out. thx


edit: how'd u get them so clean!? i think u had a thread on this right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4G92 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">OHH ok i know now.. i've never done any lubing on my car.. is it just grease? I do remember last time i changed my brakes. The pins weren't sliding so smoothly. i woud push them in and they would barely push back out. thx


edit: how'd u get them so clean!? i think u had a thread on this right?
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You definatly don't want to use just any grease...either a good synthetic brake lube or I like to use moly lube because it takes 500,000 psi to 'squish' it out of place.

Haha, I took my calipers off and cleaned, sandblasted, grinded, sanded , primed and painted them The sandblasting got them clean though. I posted up the pics in the 4G picture thread...

Hope that helps

 

is there anything tricky to taking out the pins or is it a straightforward task?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4G92 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">is there anything tricky to taking out the pins or is it a straightforward task?</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's very easy. There's a rubber boot that you must pull off and then the pins just slide out.

 

Great info I will do this just for the heck of today! What kind of paint did you use, where did you buy and did you paint everything?

 

the 500 degree ceramic crap from any auto store seems to hold up pretty well. i did the same type of cleaning and used a rust dissolver before i painted them. the prep is what makes the paint really stick. if you leave any rust it will eventually eat its way back through.

 

Well theres no rust on mine, but I will make sure to get some kind of rust dissolver. Does anyone know if that rust to paint stuff is good? I seen it at autozone and other places its supposed to remove the rust and then it turns black or somthing.....

 

yeah thats what i used. i think its called "the right stuff" or something like that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dre2day &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Great info I will do this just for the heck of today! What kind of paint did you use, where did you buy and did you paint everything?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, it's not really fair , but I work at a place where we rebuild large-scale military equipment, so I has access to a large blast bay and paint bay. I sandblasted them, used my angle grinder to smooth out there shape, then used a DA sander at work to smooth out the grinds and then sprayed $125/gallon POR-15 (Paint Over Rust) and finally sprayed them with the Autozone ceramic brake paint.

It is all about prep and attention to details.

 

i think i solved my problem

When i was having the wierd behavior w/ my brake pedal, I forgot to mention that i was driving on diff. wheels.

I had my 15"ITR's on the front w/ 195/60 tires and my 16"Reversemeshes w/ 205/50 in the back. i changed out the rears w/ the ITR's and now i havent experienced the brake mushiness yet..

could this have been my problem?

 

bump for what i think is the solution to my problemz

 

*updating with solution*


My brake lines were pinched which lead to a leaking brake fluid. got me some Goodridges :D wayy better now