hey, guys. me again. i changed my rear brakes today and had to release the brake pressure on the passenger side. i put everything back together properly, re pressurized that side, and pumped my brakes. while the car is off, the pressure builds up in the pedal. but as soon as i turn the car on, that pressure goes away. the brake fluid level is high enough and everything seems fine. any help???

 

did you open the brake line up? sounds like you need to bleed the air out of the brake lines.

 

i already bled out the air. thats wat doesn't make sense. it'll be fine while the car's off, i can tell it has pressure. but then i start it and all that pressure runs away...

 

What model Civic do you have? Do you have ABS? If so, there is a different way to bleed the brakes with cars that have ABS, it's completely different, somewhat. So if you bled your brakes like a normal car without ABS, it would be the wrong way and you can have a problem. Since it happens when you turn the car on, I would say it would be ABS related, if you're car is equipped with it, since when you turn the car on, the abs, being electric, turns on as well...

Could also be something with the ABS' initial test, as what normally happens everytime you turn your car on. The ABS goes through a quick test to make sure everything is working.

 

i have a 95 del sol si and it doesn NOT have ABS.

 

chances are there's still air in the lines somewhere...when the car is on does the pedal feel spongy-like? i've taken a brakes class at my tech college.... had the same problem with a pontiac vibe... the brakes would seem fine with the car off, but with it on the pedal would sink to the floor ad have hardly any brake power at all... so we bled the brakes at all 4 wheels through several cycles and finally got the brakes good to go

i do know many cars have opposite brakes linked together... meaning front left /rear right linked and front right/rear left linked.. can't say for sure if you sol is set up that way

i'd try bleeding at all four wheels a few times... start with the passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front, then driver front (that way it's the longest line to shortest line)

if your going to manual bleed them, make sure you have someone tighten the bleeder screw before you release the brake pedal.. otherwise you're just sucking air back in..

hope this helped, and good luck


Modified by Rthom21 at 10:44 AM 6/26/2008

 

That sequence is backwards. You're supposed to bleed the brakes on our cars starting with the one furthest away from the master cylinder.

I had to bleed mine 4-5 times after I did my rear disc conversion before there was absolutely no air left.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by OMGWTFBBQ! &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That sequence is backwards. You're supposed to bleed the brakes on our cars starting with the one furthest away from the master cylinder.

I had to bleed mine 4-5 times after I did my rear disc conversion before there was absolutely no air left. </TD></TR></TABLE>

haha.. i just noticed that i had it flipped around! fixed now!

 

that sequence is still wrong you are right in starting at the lr but you should then go to the rf then the rr and then the lf. This is because the lr and rf are tied together and the rr an lf are also tied togther. But as everyone has said rebleed the system you more then likely have air in it or you have lost the mc

 

ok. thanks guys. i'll try it. one more question, how did the whole system go flat even when i only bled the rear passenger side brake?

 

It's fluid dynamics, the system has to be full of fluid, which will not compress when full. Air will compress.

 

I figured it out! i got a mag of honda tuning and it JUST SO HAPPENED to have an article on how to properly bleed brakes and flush the system. now it works PERFECT!! just like a honda should thanks for the help!

 

91 civic si HB, Both of the rear brake lines blew on the highway (fun). got them replaced from meineke did the 2 rear lines from the hub to the wheel well, striped my wheel cylinder and then told me that it wasn't worth fixing it was too rusty and didn't want his name on it sor tof thing. I took it home, spent about 1 hour replacing the wheel cylinder (right rear), bled the 2 rear brakes i get the same issues as Wolf95 stated above.

How can you tell if its a master cylinder problem or is it just a case of bleeding the brakes? If its just a good bleeding it needs then can someone tell me the proper sequence because i'm finding mixed info.

Thanks all, I need to get this car running (yes it a bucket of rust that eats oil but thats all i can afford right now )