Brake pedal going farther

[KD5NRH]

It's had a lot of travel, but it definitely feels like it's even more now. Fluid level and front pads look good, and it still stops solid, but I've had a master cylinder fail suddenly before, (fortunately in a manual that time, and with plenty of room to downshift until I could stop safely with the e-brake) so I'm not interested in repeating that.
Planning to do the master cylinder this weekend, but is there anything else I should check while I'm on that, or any quirks in the process for these?

 

[phattyduck]

'01-'02 are different than '96-'00. For the early models, follow this to a T:

Still expect that there will be some bubbles that make it to the ABS unit, so you will need to get things close with the above procedure, then activate ABS on a loose surface, then bleed again (and maybe repeat that) to get fully stiff brakes again.

-Charlie

 

[KD5NRH]

Well, that was interesting: when I got this one, the fronts were pretty well bald on the inside, but the previous owner said he'd just replaced the steering rack shortly before he parked it, so I figured he'd fixed the underlying problem but not put $300 of tires on a car he was planning to sell anyway.
Nope: while I had the fronts off to check and bleed the brakes, I decided to check the alignment and make sure I'm not destroying my nice new tires. According to my math and Sketchup's, with 570mm (front to back) between the measurement points, the front should come out between dead even and 2mm shorter than the back, with the ideal being roughly 1mm for .08 degrees of toe in.

It was 46mm shorter. Roughly 2.3 degrees per side toed in.

I double checked everything, including swapping the tapes in case they weren't calibrated properly, making sure the angles were snug against the brake rotors and the rotors against the hubs.

I think that's the most I've ever twisted on tie rods in one shot when I wasn't replacing several steering components.

UPDATE: Wheel is at about 11:30 to go straight, but the cattle guard doesn't jerk it around laterally now, so I'll do some more tweaks in the morning and rebleed the fronts, since I can't see front right while I'm inside mashing the pedal, and they're still a bit on the soft side. Got to do an oil change anyway.

 

[Atimm693]

Master cylinder is a possibility, if you've got drums on the rear, wheel cylinders are suspect as well. Sometimes it can take a little while for the leak to show up outside of the drum.

Air doesn't just show up in the system so I wouldn't rely on bleeding alone to fix your issue.

 

[brillo_76]

Try to get all the air out.. Air loves to trapped in the ABS in the the early years 1996-2000. Also with the drums brakes in the rear make sure your shoes are setup properly.