Brakes feel like bowl of jello!

[Darkapollo]

The shadow is on the road, but now the breaks feel very soft. The car will stop but it is quite scary. We have bled the breaks out completely, replacing all of the fluid.
Our best two guesses are
Master cylinder isnt keeping pressure
Break booster is leaking.

anyone have any insite?

[mcsvt]

First off it's "brakes" ;)

Are you losing fluid? How are the flexible lines? Have somebody pump the brakes and see if they are swelling.

Not a lot of help, but somewhere to start :)

[turbovanman²]

How are you bleeding the BRAKES? are the bleeders facing up on each corner?

Define scary, what exactly is it doing? A bad brake booster will only make it hard to stop, as in a hard pedal.

[butchsuppe]

If you are sure you bled ALL the air out of the sys. you have pres. bypassing somewhere. Check for leaks everywhere including the rr whl cyls. look behind the rubber boots to make sure. Unbolt the master cyl + pull it forward to check behind it, a bad master will shoot a giser of fluid in the res. with applying brakes. Check out this site for good info: http://www.aicautosite.com/garage/symptoms/trblsht.asp Good luck.

[Darkapollo]

Im sorry, this is a car forum, not websters dictionary chat... so excuse my spelling. :eyeroll:

There is no fluid leaking anywhere and the lines are bled completely. All of the calipers are brand new so they arent leaking, and yes i have RF, LF, RR, LR, all brand new and the bleeders are facing the right way (cant exactly put the caliper on wrong..)

Im guessing that the master cyl is bad because mark said that when i hit the breaks it pushed fluid back up into the res.

The car WILL still stop with the breaks applied half way, the pedal just goes down farther and never gets firm.
Its scary because what SHOULD be locking-up-the-breaks is more of a stop-sign-is-coming-up feel.

The pedal is nice and firm with the engine off as well, so we were also suspecting the booster...

[turbovanman²]

Im sorry, this is a car forum, not websters dictionary chat... so excuse my spelling. :eyeroll:

There is no fluid leaking anywhere and the lines are bled completely. All of the calipers are brand new so they arent leaking, and yes i have RF, LF, RR, LR, all brand new and the bleeders are facing the right way (cant exactly put the caliper on wrong..)

Im guessing that the master cyl is bad because mark said that when i hit the breaks it pushed fluid back up into the res.

The car WILL still stop with the breaks applied half way, the pedal just goes down farther and never gets firm.
Its scary because what SHOULD be locking-up-the-breaks is more of a stop-sign-is-coming-up feel.

The pedal is nice and firm with the engine off as well, so we were also suspecting the booster...

Yes you can put the calipers on wrong, its been done time and time again.

If you have a soft pedal, its not the booster.

Sounds like the MC has gone, its common on older vehicles when you do BRAKE work that the MC fails.


True, this isn't websters but come on, you should be able to spell BRAKES, I mean, you guys can't even spell CHEQUE, :lol:

[Tony Hanna]

Good luck with that. On the Sundance we replaced mc, front hoses, front calipers, front pads, rear wheel cylinders, rear shoes, adjusted the rears, bled the brakes, and they're still spongey. Only things that aren't new are the hard lines, soft lines in the rear, and the prop valve. The brakes on it are good enough to lock up the wheels, so I just live with it. They do feel like crap though.

[Whorse]

Sounds exactly like the master cylinder problem I had. Had a rebuilt unit go shortly afterwards. Some of them are hit and miss I think. Might be a good chance to upgrade to the caravan unit.

I found at the very bottom of the pedal it was hard, and would just suddenly lock them without expecting it and they were touchy down there, but mushy up until that point.

[looneytuner]

True, this isn't websters but come on, you should be able to spell BRAKES, I mean, you guys can't even spell CHEQUE,
And do you cheque the oil under your BONNET frequently also?

[Darkapollo]

9_9

The master cylinder was my guess, I have the old one from the disk/drum set up still, I know I had to change the proportioning valve and the master for the disk/disk swap, but are they really that different? Would I be able to use the known good disk/drum master?
I also ran new hardline to the rears. There is good fluid and good pressure to the rear calipers too.

[Anonymous_User]

Are there any splices in the hard brake lines? I chased a similar issue on an 85 daytona. Replaced EVERYTHING except the prop valve, booster, and hard lines. Finally gave up and took it to the shop. They found a compression splice in one of the hard lines installed by previous owner. It wasn't leaking fluid, but it was allowing air to bleed back into the system.

[turbovanman²]

For the price of a new MC, just buy a NEW one, not reman, not used, NEW one.

[Birddog]

If your hitting the brahes :p with the cylinder cap off you will see fluid squirting back at you..

FWIW...If the current master is known good or new it may have not been bench bled enough. I've done that on 2 different cars out of impatience...

[Darkapollo]

I got a new master today, going to try it tomorrow. No there are no splices in the line..

[turbovanman²]

I got a new master today, going to try it tomorrow. No there are no splices in the line..

Don't forget to bench bleed it.

[shadow88]

Don't forget to bench bleed it.

+1 If that doesn't work I would like a guess as well.

[Frank]

Yes you can put the calipers on wrong, its been done time and time again.

If you have a soft pedal, its not the booster.

Sounds like the MC has gone, its common on older vehicles when you do BRAKE work that the MC fails.


True, this isn't websters but come on, you should be able to spell BRAKES, I mean, you guys can't even spell CHEQUE, :lol:

Like you should talk, you arent even really Canadian!

[turbovanman²]

Like you should talk, you arent even really Canadian!



Hahhhaa, funny one Frank, :lol:

Gonna have some tea and crumpets, :partywoot: