Friend's 91 Accord - Troubleshoot Brakes

[Site]

Hope you guys can give some tips on what to troubleshoot with his braking problems:

-Brakes are "spongey"
-Tires are braking at different intervals (first front left locks up, causing skid, then front right locks up, rear brakes both are braking only lightly)

Had brakes looked at by a shop a year ago, shop said everything looked good. This problem has been evident for several years.

My friend also has car lowered but is running on stock blown shocks.

[accordboricua]

Brake Pump maybe bad? Just a guess...

[anchovies]

Does the car have ABS?
Try bleeding the brakes to eliminate the spongy feel.

[smufguy]

- the Spongy feeling might be air in the brake lines like we all know. So best bet is to bleed it and filling it the right way.

- One wheel locking up than the others might be due to bad propotioning valve. I guess they are on the right side once u open the hood (near the strut) on a 4g.

- Check to see if the caliper is not frozen or the disk wear is uneven on individual wheels. check to see if the pads in the front and back (if he has ex or se) are of the same seriel number and the wear is the same.

- if he does not have disks in the back, it could be just his drum pads pretty much worn out.

- If he has abs. try disconnecting the battery, unpluggin the ABS unit in the rear trunk on the right side near the to of the strur (rear passenger strut) and then plugging it back in and see how it performs

- ask your friend to take it to an alignment and balancing shop and get his alignment and balancing checked out. if his camber or caster is out of range, it would feel like one wheel is locking up cause the car would be pulling to one side.

- give your friend some advice and ask him to fix his blown shocks if he wants to be alive and not want to spend a fortune spending on reparing the damage it would cost in the very near future.

[Site]

thanks for the replies! i've talked to him about the shocks a lot (every time i ride in his car - lol). when he gets shocks he knows he'll need KYB-AGX or Koni shocks, and he's not ready to take a hit in the wallet yet.

[AccordEpicenter]

At this point you should concentrate on the calipers and front rotors as well as the back shoes and wheel cylinders. If the front has one caliper with a piston that not moving as well as it should, that could do it. Also, in the back check the shoes, bad quality shoes can wear out very fast, and also check the wheel cylinders, they are the things that push the shoes apart against the drums. With brake shoes off of them you should be able to push each side of the wheel cylinder in and out fairly easily, but they can get seized easily, and if they are, replace them. Also, when checking the calipers in the front end, look at the inside surface of the rotor, while the disc side facing out can look good, that doesnt mean the inside surface is... I had clumps of rust in the inside of my disks once and the outsides looked great.. that caust alot of heat buildup and fade.