help with brakes
 

I just replaced my master cylinder for my brakes...i bleeed the cylinder and all 4 brakes but my pedal is still low? What should i do? re bleed them or....idk

Re: help with brakes
 

when you were bleeding them, did the pedal get hard ?

Re: help with brakes
 

not really

Re: help with brakes
 

you didnt do this by yourself, did you ?? get someone in the car to pump the brake while you bleed them. make sure the pedal is hard, I usually pump it ~20 times on each wheel. Do it again and tell me how it is.

Re: help with brakes
 

you need to bleed the master cylinder ITSELF before u put it on.
Use rubber lines to route all the in/outlet of the MC back into the resvior, fill it up with brake fluid then hand pump the piston until all the bubbles came out. Then put it back on , connect all the lines and bleed all 4 wheels.

Re: help with brakes
 

i had my dad pump the brakes while i bleeded them through the bleed nut and i stoped when there were no more air bubbles in the clean hose i hooked up to the bleed nut.....i dont remember if he had the brake up or not...would that make a difference?

Re: help with brakes
 

i mean i didnt know if he took the hand brake off or not

Re: help with brakes
 

You don't get it, you need to bench bleed the master cylinder. This means taking it off of your car and putting it in a vice.

You use some fittings that screw into where the brake lines would go into the master cylinder, and connect the lines back into the reservoir. Then you basically push on the cylinder with whatever you have laying around that works (screwdriver, extension, etc.) until the bubbles stop.

Re: help with brakes
 

when i did my drum/disc conversion i only bleed the four weels not the MC. this is how you do it. let your dad pump the pedal until it gets hard, make sure he has the brake pedal pushed in, then loosen the nipple(or whatever its called)then tight it. do that a few times 3 or 4 on each wheel. handle brake has nothing to do with it.

Re: help with brakes
 

You got lucky. Any time you swap out a master cylinder you should bench bleed it.

Re: help with brakes
 

i intalled the MC then had my dad pump the brake and i loosed the fittings with the brake pushed down and repeated untill no more bubbles came out from the fitting

Re: help with brakes
 

He said he replaced the master. He DOES HAVE to bench bleed it. No way around it. If you bought it new or reman, they usually come w/ fittings & small hoes to bench bleed it, and sometimes instructions too. You dont have to remove the master to bench bleed it, just remove the 2 solid brake lines coming out of it & temporarily replace them w/ 2 lines to recirculate the fluid into the resorvior. Then have someone SLOWLY pump the pedal untill you see no more bubbles coming out of the 2 lines you have going back into the resorvior. Then reinstall the 2 lhard lines to the brakes, and rebleed the 4 wheels.

Also, if you are 100% sure you have all the air out you can try to adjust the rears up a little (if you have drum still, if you have disc, ignore that last bit)

Worst case scenario, grab a Haynes book and thatll tell and show you how to bench bleed masters. Good luck.

Re: help with brakes
 

I also put in a used EX MC, because of the discs in the rear. didnt do anything with my MC just bleed the four calipers. do it over again and make sure the pedal gets hard.

Re: help with brakes
 

im goin to do that tomorow (bench bleed it) so i would have to re bleed everything huh?

Re: help with brakes
 

:y good luck

Re: help with brakes
 

yes, rebleed all 4 corners after your done bleeding the master (bench bleeding). Good rule of thumb is to start farthest away from master and work your way closer (ie RR, LR, RF, LF).

You are one lucky fucker if you didnt have to bleed your master after installing it and you didnt have a shitty pedal and/or pedal to the floor every once in a while.

Re: help with brakes
 

does it mater that i have ABS?

Re: help with brakes
 

lol, I guess so. its been about three months since I did it. pedal is still hard as ----, never had any problem.

ABS dose not matter either

Re: help with brakes
 

That potentially throws another problem into it. Im not sure if your ABS module has bleeders on it or not, but if it does, it may be to your benefeit if you bleed that also, (after the master, before the wheels). I dont have ABS, so I dont know if Hondas have bleeders on the modules or not (most ABS cars do, if not all, some also have resorviors like the older Accords), if not, then just work the air out by bleeding the wheels. If you dont see bleeders on it, it can get complicated.

For instance, we had a VW Golf w/ ABS blow a brake line, replaced it, bleed the system (had to put tension on the rear wheels b/c of the height/load sensing prop valve) and then intermittently, the ABS would kick on, and the pedal would sink to the floor, no brakes. We find out that the ABS module needed bleeding. To do that, we had to hook the scanner up to it and actuate the indvidual solenoids inside to get the air out. That was a cluster ----. The car was in the shop 2 days before we got a scan tool that would communicate w/ VWs. What a ---- design.

Anyway, it CAN get complicated, but your cars not German, so its probably not that bad. You may want to invest 10 bucks in a Haynes manual (avail at any parts store) and check to see exactly what the ABS bleeding procedure is. Good luck, you may have a task at hand.