Weird Brake Issue After Caliper and Pad Change

inscarguy

inscarguy

Member
Here's the story. Had the typical caliper issue, most of the pistons frozen. Had a nice high pedal, still stopped good. Pads worn even etc...

Got centric rebuilt units, powerstop rotors and pads the heavy duty set, braided brake lines. All went fine with the changes, brakes bled fine.

The issue is a spongy, longer stroke pedal. It stops fine but it just does not feel right. I have pumped the pedal 45 or so times. Believe it or not the truck had a 0 point calibration 8 months ago and the whole truck felt different including the brakes.

What are your thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
You have to pump it sloooooooowly.

Like hold for 30 seconds, release for 30 seconds. So that would take a while, and I know it seems stupid. But it works. It gets all the teeny bubbles out from inside the system.

It's pretty common.

I'm going to go dig up the thread about it. I had the exact issue, as have countless others.

We seriously need to sticky this one.

EDIT: found it!!

Start reading at post #34:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/223054-5th-gen-caliper-install-gone-wrong-3.html
 
Last edited:
inscarguy said:
Here's the story. Had the typical caliper issue, most of the pistons frozen. Had a nice high pedal, still stopped good. Pads worn even etc...

Got centric rebuilt units, powerstop rotors and pads the heavy duty set, braided brake lines. All went fine with the changes, brakes bled fine.

The issue is a spongy, longer stroke pedal. It stops fine but it just does not feel right. I have pumped the pedal 45 or so times. Believe it or not the truck had a 0 point calibration 8 months ago and the whole truck felt different including the brakes.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

i replaced my front and rear calipers and rotors a few weeks ago and had a similar issue with spongy brake pedal after. I just kept bleeding the brakes and they eventually firmed up. I probably bled each caliper 5 times with wife pumping brakes. It used a lot of brake fluid.
 
Well I did the pumping of the brake pedal again and rebled again. Barely a difference. Any other suggestions?
 
Last edited:
I feel you pump the brakes 3-4 times in a row, does the pedal firm up? Or does it stay spongy regardless of pumping?
 
While this probably isn't the issue, I have got calipers that had the wrong bore size. We bled and bled and bled. Finally measured the pistons between the two and there was marked difference. Did some research and found the manufacture misboxed some parts. When the correct caliper was installed it worked correctly.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
inscarguy said:
It firms up
Click to expand...

i hate to say it and I know you bled several times, but i would bet that it's still a bleeding issue. how are you bleeding? power bleeder? buddy pressing pedal?
and are you bleeding all 4 calipers?

like i said, i went through this same issue recently and didn't fix it until repeatedly bleeding each caliper. i went through over a bottle of brake fluid.
 
I had to replace my front calipers twice. I had read somewhere that you just open the bleeder (I put a small clear hose over it but don't know if that is necessary) and let it drain for a bit. Worked both times and my brakes are firm as heck.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Antoddio said:
I had to replace my front calipers twice. I had read somewhere that you just open the bleeder (I put a small clear hose over it but don't know if that is necessary) and let it drain for a bit. Worked both times and my brakes are firm as heck.
Click to expand...

the hose just keeps it clean so that brake fluid doesn't squirt everywhere, but it's not necessary. if you are working in a place where you don't care about a mess, it's easiest to just loosen the bleeder screw after someone has pumped and held the brakes. it sounds like OP has air somewhere in his lines, so he'll just have to keep bleeding each of the calipers until those last drops of air are removed.
 
i found instead of "pumping" to bleed brakes its much better to just do the gravity feed brake bleed method.

it works so much better because it pushes "all" the air out rather then having lots of bubbles created by pumping and releasing pressure on the pedal.

its the best way to get it done right the first time every time and i always like to replace the whole system with all new fluid every time i do any brake work.

this is how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K__9lR8yW6Y
 
inscarguy said:
Here's the story. Had the typical caliper issue, most of the pistons frozen. Had a nice high pedal, still stopped good. Pads worn even etc...

Got centric rebuilt units, powerstop rotors and pads the heavy duty set, braided brake lines. All went fine with the changes, brakes bled fine.

The issue is a spongy, longer stroke pedal. It stops fine but it just does not feel right. I have pumped the pedal 45 or so times. Believe it or not the truck had a 0 point calibration 8 months ago and the whole truck felt different including the brakes.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
just to be sure, the calipers are on the correct side? bleeder on TOP?
 
Total shots in the dark here:

Once I had an issue like this, and the threads on the caliper were letting air back into the caliper down the threads because of a machining issue. The threads were "loose". I used plumbers tape on the threads and it worked. The symptom was constant bubbles coming out of the caliper. It would never stop bubbling because the air was going down the threads.

Also, is it possible the master cylinder went dry? That can cause a bunch of problems obviously.

Sorry that the slow pumps didn't work. It worked for many of us.
 
Slowgoat said:
Total shots in the dark here:

Once I had an issue like this, and the threads on the caliper were letting air back into the caliper down the threads because of a machining issue. The threads were "loose". I used plumbers tape on the threads and it worked. The symptom was constant bubbles coming out of the caliper. It would never stop bubbling because the air was going down the threads.
Click to expand...

So does everyone agree it is an issue with persistent air in the lines/calipers?
 
I have only bled the fronts as I squeezed off the brake hoses from letting fluid out and air in.

the bleeders are in the correct positions.

they were bled with my GF pumping the brakes.

I also used a Phoenix brake bleeder that bleeds the brakes in the reverse direction.

the master never went dry.

whats weird is I never had this issue with any other vehicle. I just did my GMC sierra and no issue at all. pedal nice and firm with barely any pedal travel.
 
I will add that some Powerstop brake pad materials feel this way. We tried them on our JKU and while they stopped much better (distance wise) the pedal feel was spongy.

We thought for a long time we were fighting a air bubble somewhere. When I was about to give up we borrowed a friend's Jeep to swap brake parts real quick. Sure enough... stopping was back to original and pedal feel was returned if not WAY more firm than before.

We still have the Powerstop rotors, but ditched the pads for OEM types.

I agree that the most common cause to what you are having is air in the system somewhere, but I've known more than just us to note spongy pedal after a switch to Powerstop Pads. I don't think it's all of them as the have a bunch, but some for sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 972 (members: 8, guests: 964)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,312
Messages
3,554,089
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top