**HELP**

Okay, this might take awhile. My brakes are pretty messed up. I'm going to explain this in phases when I did what I did and why I did it. I have a '92 Honda Civic CX hatchback with a '94 GSR swap.

I was on stock CX brakes. Completely stock everything since the swap in April '01. Stock pads, stock fluid, etc. I did some drag, and then AutoX, but never roadcourse, so I wasn't really ever that hard on my brakes. I was at a somewhat fast AutoX this year (maybe March '03) and at the end of it you had to slam on your brakes to make the exit through the cones. After about 4 hard runs I noticed my brakes feeling a bit "sponge like" and mushy. I hung it up after that and decided it was time to upgrade.

Fast forward to Sept '03 just before the Honda-Tech trackday here at Mid America Motorplex. I upgraded to new Cobalt pads, Valvoline Synpower upgraded brake fluid, then bled the brakes. The bleeding didn't go well...we must've tried it like 5 times and it still felt like it would go to the floor. I would get the "whoosh" as I pressed the brake pedal as if there is still air in the system.

After numerous debates, brainstorming and research...we changed the master cylinder. At last I thought my hatch would be ready for the roadcourse, but no. We still had the same problem. We jump to conclusions and decide it has to be the power booster. We're all done (or so we think) and it's the night before I go to the roadcourse. I'm heading to the pre-party and I get off the interstate. My pads look to be smoking from my left driver's front brakes. I'm thinking that everything might be okay and we only have about a mile or so to get to my buddy's house. Next thing I know my car seems slower...MUCH slower. The brakes are dragging and now my pads are smoking like crazy!!! We make it there and my caliper is seized up and the rotor was red hot. It took like 7 of us to push the car downhill with that caliper seized up. We ended up getting the caliper off. The car sits because I decided rather than buy a new CX front caliper I will just upgrade.

Just the other day I have a set of Integra front spindles I'm going to install. My buddy and I get it all done and we're ready to test it out (after installing new lower ball joints...damn junkyards and their air tool happiness). We're all ready to go and we re-bleed the brakes again. All seems well and the brakes feel good. I go for a short test drive around my neighborhood. Everything seems fine for a block or so, then the brakes start seizing up again!!! That's right...it's my driver's side front caliper sticking again. Luckily I make it home and we immediatlely loosen the bleeder screw to release pressure.

I really need help everyone...what is the problem? We're starting to think it's a bad prop valve or possibly bad lines. The only thing I don't understand is if it were bad lines why would we be able to bleed it? If it were clogged up then it wouldn't push fluid out.

Thanks,
Todd

 

ok i feel your pain

this is your first step ...take off the master cylinder and clean it out thoroughly flush the front brake lines out of all the fluid and get all the contaminants out of there refill with new fluid and rebleed the front and do the same to the rear just a safe precaution
also you need to check the brake pedal for the correct amount of free play 1/8 to be exact.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by K20EG &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok i feel your pain

this is your first step ...take off the master cylinder and clean it out thoroughly flush the front brake lines out of all the fluid and get all the contaminants out of there refill with new fluid and rebleed the front and do the same to the rear just a safe precaution
also you need to check the brake pedal for the correct amount of free play 1/8 to be exact.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Okay, but the MC is brand new...do you think I should just put new lines on instead of even messing with those orig ones?

Also about the brake pedal adj...maybe we didn't do that just right. Could that be causing our problems?

 

yea that peg lookin thing stickin outta the booster can cause probs like that if the master is new try this
check the freeplay @ the brake pedal if its kinda tight
take off the master *unbolt it only *turn that little peg in 2 turns and check the pedal adjustment see where your at

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by K20EG &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea that peg lookin thing stickin outta the booster can cause probs like that if the master is new try this
check the freeplay @ the brake pedal if its kinda tight
take off the master *unbolt it only *turn that little peg in 2 turns and check the pedal adjustment see where your at</TD></TR></TABLE>

I can try that...only thing I'm trying to figure out is that the pedal only gets stiff when the caliper seizes up which makes me think it has nothing to do with pedal adjustment. The more I think about it the more I think it's the prop valve putting too much power to that driver's front side. What do you think?

 

look inside the master cylinder *resorvoir* make sure there is no small pieces of debris in the master cylinder

 

Are you using the same flex lines as before? They can sometimes separate internally in a way that lets pressure from the master cylinder to the caliper but not back out again. Could also be crud that got back into the MS. If it was the prop valve, I think you would get the problem at both fronts, not just one.

 

Fixed! Thanks for all your help guys. Luckily it was just the adjustment from the pedal to the booster. I had to adj it all the way as far as it would go. I'm not sure if my parts store gave me some universal crap booster or what.

 

Good stuff