Well the shop has had my car forever and a day now, but they say they cant find anything wrong with the car
Heres what happens when i drive it. It starts out where the brakes are fine and everything seems to be normal. After about 15 min of driving the brake peddle starts to become very hard. Then the front brakes start dragging really bad. Even parked on a steep slope it wont roll on it own.
If i turn the car off for a while it goes back to normal.
They brake lines have been replaced. THe calipers and rotors are new. This system seems to bleed just fine. And it does not seem like the back brakes are being affected.
I was thinking that mater cylinder, but would that not also affect that back as they are on the same reservior?
Any thought would be a great help. I just dont know what to try any more.



[Modified by pablo_max, 11:32 PM 10/22/2002]

 

Have they checked the master cylinder pushrod adjustment?

 

I dont think so. they said that it shouldnt get messed up unless it was taken off, which it wasnt. so i doubt they did very much

 

is the push rod adjustment hard to check? would that affect the brakes all the time or just when it warms up?
would it be easier to just replace the master cylinder?

 

Try unplugging the vacuum assist and see if the brakes still lock up after a while.

 

GOOD GOD please use normal english in this forum and not that crap.

 

i dont even know what that said.

they are not making any noise at all

is that safe to unplug the assest?

 

This is true. If your sure nobody screwed with it, it's probably ok. You possibly have a bad master cylinder. Try loosening the brake lines at the master cylinder when it is acting up. Does that free the wheels up.

 

getting your answer now.....................

 

Interesting problem...hard to say.

On your vacuum brake booster line...there should be a plastic (gray or brown colored) one-way valve that joins this line together...make sure the arrow on it is pointing in the sight direction (E --&gt, towards the engine/intake.

Let us know what your tech finds...certainly curious about what is wrong.

-Andie

 

got a call from the tech today...they told me they gave up. So i guess i will just replace the master cylinder myself and see if that fixes it.
I hope thats it and not the booster or the perportioning valve cuz damn those are expensive.
i will look at that booster valve though.

 

when you say check the pushrod adjustment are you talking about the rod that sticks out of the booster?
can you tell me how to check that?
also how do i adjust it?

What i have been told regarding the booster is that with the fluid cap off and having a partner push the brake peddle about an inch i should see the fluid in the reservior change height. If there is a change right away then the rod is out to far and if it never changes then the rod is to far in.
Does this sound right?

 

We use a "special tool" supplied by Honda. It's the only way I know to properly set the clearance. (It doesn't get used very often. It's usually a last resort.)

 

would it be possible for the rod to be off even though that master has not been removed?

 

I had a problem almost identical to this one after I replaced my master cylinder (except mine completely locked up). I couldn't figure out how to adjust the pushrod, so to check and see if that was it, I took the nuts off the master cylinder and put a washer (about 2mm or so) on each stud behind the master cylinder so it would stick out just a bit. Then when I pushed the brake pedal I could actually feel when the rod came into contact with the piston on the MC, so I knew for sure there was no pressure on the MC piston without actually pushing the brakes. They still locked up, so I ruled that out. Then I also discovered that when I put the new calipers on, I accidently put an extra washer (you know, those little copper ones) on the front right brake hose banjo bolt. Being a banjo bolt, the washer spaces the bolt so that the hole inside of it aligns with the ring it goes inside of. With an extra washer (especially on the outside) it didn't line up, thus causing restriction. There was enough force from the master cylinder to push fluid through there, but it didn't want to come back out on it's own (did that make sense? lol). Anyways, make sure there is only 1 washer on each side of the banjo bolt, and if that doesn't fix it, it's most likely a master cylinder.

 

Since the adjustment is inside the car, yes.

 

Hey all,
I tried to reply to this last night, but i cant post more then 5 times in 25 hrs
I replaced the master cylinder last night and that seemed to fix it. I still need to bleed the system a bit better, but its a lot better now.
Talk about a pain in butt. I wish i had tiny hands. Its really a pain to work on this thing. No room under the hood.
I changed the master in my old montero in less the 30 min from start to tools put away, it took me almost 2 hours on the honda. No wonder the brake place gave up.
Thanks for all the help on this one. Just wanted to let you all know what fixed it.

 

I changed the master cylinder and my brakes were fine for a while.
But now they are starting to lock up again. This time around i tried to pay more attention to when it was happening.
Heres what i've got.
When i start the car to go to work, every thing is fine. A little mushy cuz theres still some air in there, but not too bad.
After about 15-20 min of driving in traffic and speeds under 45mph the peddle begins to get harder and harder until i smell the brake dust from the brakes locking.
If i slam down on the peddle at a light or something it seems to loosen it up a little but the pressure builds back up in no time at all.

Now, once i pass the towns and get to back roads i take it up to 70-75mph. about 5-10 min of this and the brakes are back to normal. I am thinking that the high speed is cooling them off maybe.
I was thinking perhaps the booster is bad, but i would assume that at higher speed i would incur a higher vacuum pressure which would make it worse i would think.

The brake guys said it seems like the back brakes are not effected, only the front. I was sure that the master cylinder fix my braking woes. but no such luck.
any ideas? I tried disconneting the booster hose but that just made it really hard to stop, but the peddle was still hard.

Patrick

 

hey, i was trying to figure out what you were saying and i think that your problem was that the pads doesn't go back to normal position after breaking, i was thinking that maybe it was the little things that make the pads go back a lil after braking, it sounds dumb but it was hard for me to figure that out (remember english is my third languaje)
anyway, if i'm WAY of just forget about my post

 

it sounds like your rotors are heating up. when your rotors heat up, the gas from them gets trapped between the rotors and pads. this causes you to have terrible braking. i would check your rear cylinders to make sure they are not out. if they are then you will be only using your front brakes, when braking and could cause the overheating. if that isnt it. last option would be to try some drilled rotors and new pads(so you dont mess up the rotors). the drilled rotors will release the gas. if overheating is the problem. good luck

 

Hmmm,
I checked that plastic thing that Cobalt said and it was not facing the wrong way.
The guy at Honda was saying that it could be that the valve failed.
I am also having engine trouble too that would point to a vacuum leak.
One would have to assume that a bad check valve would also inject engine trouble into the mix.
Only one problem, that little valve is 55 bucks and even Honda has to order it.
Perhaps i would be better off spending the money to have the honda dealer check it out?
Cobalt or anyone else...just so i am clear that we're talking about the same valve..the hose that connects to the booster it self on the far right side of the booster (when facing the firewall) come out and go up towards the top of the fire wall where it bends towards the left side of the engine. Then there is a break in the hose where there is a gray plastic connector thing before the hose bends back down then to the engine. Is that the right valve???



[Modified by pablo_max, 2:07 AM 10/24/2002]

 

Medside...if that were the case there must be a reason that is happening. I have replaced the calipers within the last weeks. the rotors have been replaced and turned after the dragging brakes warped them.
I know that as the brakes drag it creates more heat which in turns reduces the braking effiencey. Still, there must be a reason that the brakes are dragging.

 

I will figure this one out tonight...........

 

doubt this is the problem................. drilled rotors will warp easier and quicker than anything else and todays pads do not give off nearly enough gas to create this effect

 

When I got home from work last night at about 3am my brakes were nice and tight. (just keep those thoughts to yourself)
So i poped the hook and quicky disconnected the one way valve on the booster side hoping that it was bad. As soon as i took it off shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sudden release of persure and brakes released.
I thought that meant it was bad. I went over to honda to get a new one and talked with a honda tech. He told me that the release of presure means its holding vacuum and thats what it should do. If it didnt, then it would be bad. Damn..back to the drawing board.
Looks like i may have ti leave it with Honda to figure out. They said it would cost me about 45 bucks for them to figure it out.
The engine seems to stumble when under load, so i was hoping there was a vacuum leak that was causing both.
oh well