Hello, HT. I have a 1999 ek hatch. Let me start off by giving you guys my brake history. A few months ago, my car suffered from a spongy pedal even after bleeding my brakes. Eventually, I decided to upgrade my pads and rotors. After upgrading them, I finally got a nice, firm pedal. The new brakes were extremely responsive and I did the break-in procedure. After a couple weeks, the brakes were no longer getting responsive. I actually had to apply more pressure in order to stop the car and the pedal felt stiffer.

I thought it was my brake booster at first, but I did one of those broke booster tests and the booster was fine. My brakes were responsive while driving, but it got stiff after applying the brakes 2 or 3 times. But now my brake pedal is stiffer than usual and the brakes arent as responsive anymore.

I was driving on the freeway yesterday, and kept hearing odd noises coming from the passenger side. Sort of like, metal on metal contact and grinding noises. When I got home, I could already smell that burned brake smell. The driver side was okay though. I took off the wheel, and rotated the wheel hub. I would feel resistance when spinning it but only on certain parts of the rotor (I thought I had a warped rotor). I took off the caliper to check the pads and took photos. The caliper piston would not move in after I tried pressing it in with my hand. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be that stiff even if you're using just your hands. I'm not sure if the caliper is continously applying pressure since it might be stuck? I'm going to test drive it in a bit and see if the car pulls to one side when I press the brakes.

What do you guys think it could be? I spun the wheel after putting the caliper and pad back on and I didn't feel resistance anymore. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks for reading

 

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You should check the caliper slides, they are to studs that usually go through a rubber boot and into the caliper or caliper bracket. If they don't move when you push or pull, then that could be why. Is there any uneven pad wear between the two pads on that side? And yes it's definitely hard to press the caliper piston in by hand.

 

I checked those slides earlier and I can move them pretty easily with my hand. Today, I was driving and pressed on the brakes and felt the car tug to the left side. Funny thing is that my car needs an alignment and pulls to the right when I let go of the steering wheel so I'm not sure if its my brakes or alignment that makes it pull left this time.

Edit: I didn't check the back side of the rotor for wear. The pad that goes behind the rotor seems to be chipping a bit. I posted a picture of the pads

 

sound like the caliper isn't returning completely (start to stuck). The easiest way to test it is put your wheel again lift the car, start it and have a friend pumping the brake and release it, every time the pedal was pushed check for caliper movement and wheel lock up and with the pedal released check for free spinning. If when the pedal is released you feel resistance, take the wheel off and with a flat screwdriver open the caliper and try again (if now have free spinning you find the problem)

Like the zachh said check the caliper guides and the pads indicators.

 

Did you check all the caliper slides? Or just fronts/ones you changed pads on?

Also...you can jack up the car, keep the wheels on for now, put the trans in neutral, ebrake turned off, and hit the brakes. Figure out if one wheel is locked up (having trouble spinning). You found your problem corner.

 

Update: I decided to replace the caliper anyways. It was only like $45 so what the hell. The old caliper was leaking some brake fluid around the piston so I figured it was bad. So far the car brakes decent. I hate how the brakes easily lock up though (it was like this when I first got my new rotors/pads). I also found out that my rotor on the passenger is warped. when I spun the wheel, it would sort of "wobble" side to side at certain spots. I just got these damn rotors too. Not sure if the other side is warped too. Some of the noise that's coming from the passenger side brake area is due to the warped rotor I think. I hear a "chirp" sound go on and off continuously for awhile, but sometimes it goes away after I use the brakes.

 

you bought no name parts what did you expect....lesson learned I hope.

 

Powerstop had a bunch of positive reviews from countless websites. Didn't think they would be bad. Maybe the warping happened because of my car? Oh well though.

I'm still getting a burning brake smell from the passenger side only again. Driver's side is fine.

 

Its not the rotors or pads, those are fine. They COULD be warped, thats possible with a stuck caliper. recheck the clips in the bracket. also jack the car and wiggle the wheel and spin it. ya may wanna have a shop check the bearing over there. Its possible, though very unlikely, that the prop valve could be having problems and is causing the caliper to stick. given you replaced the caliper, ill assume you replaced its bracket too (hope so). take more pics please.

 

Neither of the wheels wobble when they are jacked up. My wheel bearings are okay, I replaced both not too long ago. However, I do have a slight steering wheel vibration at high speeds and goes away when I start braking. I think the passenger side is warped, but that wouldn't really explain the stiff pedal feel. I'll upload more pics next morning. I only replaced the caliper and some of the parts associated with it (it came with some extra pieces like some bolts, washers, and the "rod" looking thing that holds the top part of the caliper). The bracket that holds the pads was not replaced.

Edit: When I replaced the caliper and disconnected the brake line, I had a pair of pliers wrapped with a thin towel to clamp down the brake line. I didn't see that much fluid come out when I took off the brake line. I was expecting to see a lot shooting out

 

If your wheel wobbles at high speed and stops when ya brake, thats likely a loose tie rod (most likely in the steering rack.) the rack has 4 ball joints.

interesting way of not loosing fluid to clamp over the O fitting on the end of the brake hose. id look at the bracket next, as that affects the caliper alignment. by the way your rotors look like they are bedding in normally. as for a firm pedal, that could be the change in pad compound, these may be a more agressive pad than your old ones, and maybe your old brakes sucked more. did you bleed the rear brakes too?

 

Some of those ball joints have grease all of over them. I'm sure they need to be replaced soon, but i'll take care of that when I get an alignment done. The rear brakes have nothing but clear fluid coming out of it. They should be good. That's good to know that the pads are wearing in properly.

The odd thing is that the pedal started feeling "more stiff" recently. When I first did the rotor and pad replacement, the pedal was nice and firm and the car would stop even with a little pressure to the pedal. Now, the brake pedal still feels stiff, but I need to apply more pressure on the pedal to stop the vehicle. And I also get that burnt brake smell after a drive (pass side only).

 

I found an interesting post on this thread: https://honda-tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2080963&styleid=18 Its post #9.

A few weeks ago, it was raining pretty hard and there were puddles everywhere. I drove my car anyways through big puddles anyways even with my car being really low. Not sure if water damaged my and is causing the caliper to stick? My rotor is somewhat warped, and I get an awful brake feel. I'm guessing the caliper is constantly applying pressure because of a faulty brake hose? Am I way off or can this be the cause of my brake problem?

 

If your rotors are warped than you should fee the vibrations when braking. Do you feel vibrations?

 

I feel vibrations at high speeds and usually the vibration gets less intense when I start braking

 

Not sound good for rotors.

 

I think I'm just going to get a new brake hose, and I'll see if that makes any difference. I really don't feel like buying one at autozone for $25 or buying one online and waiting for it to get here. I'll just pull one at a junkyard. I won't be able to know the condition of the inside of the hose so hopefully I pull a good one.

 

This sounds like a loose wheel bearing or ball joint or something. First clue being that the vibrations get LESS intense when you hit the brakes.

See if the rotor seems "warped" if you swap it to the other side.

Are the rotor screws on? Without them, if the wheels are unbolted, the rotor will seem to wobble.

If the rotor really is bent badly enough for you to see, the vibrations would be so bad that you'd feel them at all speeds and you'd feel like the car was coming apart.

I really doubt your rotor is damaged. If it is...rockauto has a really good warranty/returns program.

 

Not sure what you're talking about.

 

he bought pads and rotors off ebay for 110$ including shipping my front pads alone cost more then all that (hawk blue's).

 

They're power stop pads. Why does it always matter how much you paid for things? I remember MY first 1994 Acura Integra.

 

I think a lot of the issue has to do with existing parts being messed up and the OP not knowing how to install brakes. He was trying to push the brake piston back in by hand. Hope you have strong hands. No it shouldn't move by hand. I've seen my friend do this one time, and he was an enormous dude....and he was still sweating trying to do it.

OP also put pliers on a rubber brake line :facepalm:. Not sure if the brakes were bled after. The more I read this thread, the more its apparent that the brakes were incorrectly installed.

I doubt those pistons got pushed back in properly. The caliper slides were likely stuck. And the dude had maybe a bad caliper as well as some possible loose components.

He could have overpaid for brakes and had the same result.

 

Ppl buy cheap **** and wonder why things like this happen alternatively he probably did do something wrong.

and the 09 fit + full time university all paid in full at 19 y/o

 

You go to school in Canada. What is that? $6/year? My education costs WAY more. (See what I did there?)

Again....they're power stop pads.