stuck caliper? Help!

[Tdurr]

So the other day i noticed my brakes started to grab wayyy further down then it use to, but they still stopped the car no problem. So bled the brakes. work fine, for about a month. Then it did it again. The car stops fine but it doesnt start stopping till the pedal is 3/4th of the way down.
So i go to bleed the brakes again today and noticed only a little bit of fluid come out of the driver side rear bleeder screw. I have my friend stand on the brakes and i can freely turn the wheel. But when the e-brake is on it locks it up. whats the problem? I have fluid. the brakes didnt get stiffer this time when i bled it. Do i have a stuck caliper?

[Rendon LX-i]

your master cynlider is FUCKED. The brake fuild is passing the primany seal bro. Little tip...take out all the old fuild and put dot4 in there. silicon type. works like a dream.

[Tdurr]

damnit. alright.

[Tdurr]

well we went back out there and read bled them and fluid shoots outta the pass side and smacks the mud flap and on the rear driver side it just kinda leaks out but it still isnt getting stiffer. Master cylinder still?

[Civic Accord Honda]

sounds like the drum cylinder thingy(forgot name of said part) is fucked...

[codyJDM]

Have you inspected your brake lines? Is there any fluid leakage from the bad caliper, or in the master over time? You don't have a seized piston because the e-brake still compresses it. Check the brake lines.

[codyJDM]

sounds like the drum cylinder thingy(forgot name of said part) is fucked...

Wheel cylinder. He has rear discs judging by his post haha

[mushroom_toy]

I think you suck at bleeding brakes Tim. hahahaah no but really make sure youre bleeding them correctly, sometimes it takes a while on every corner. Make sure your master cylinder isnt leaking, if it isnt then Id say you should be ok.

[Tdurr]

i know i dont have any leaks. first thing i checked. and we did each corner like a good 10+ times before we went on to the next one. It would build up a lil bit of resistance if i used the e-brake to pump the rear disk and then after i hit the pedal it would go away. so i dono. im really tired now. gave up on it atm.
edit: its just like this guys problem, but my pedal doesnt get stiff after any amount of pumping.
http://www.importatlanta.com/forums/showthread.php?p=37955079#post37955079

[codyJDM]

If it is the pedal stiffness you're having an issue with(along with no fluid loss and a low pedal) you have a bad primary seal in your master cylinder which yields replacement.

Hit up napa, you can get one for like 50-80$.

[Rendon LX-i]

You wont see leaks when a master C. is leaking bro. it just passes the primary seal. Just go to a junk yard yank one and see if it works. if it still does the same thing then its something esle...i rather you go that route then spend 100ish or 2 or a master c.

[Tdurr]

a new master c is lke 40ish. so not a big bang to the wallet. but thanks for letting me know whats going on. Ill be getting one first thing in the morning.

[codyJDM]

You wont see leaks when a master C. is leaking bro. it just passes the primary seal. Just go to a junk yard yank one and see if it works. if it still does the same thing then its something esle...i rather you go that route then spend 100ish or 2 or a master c.

Not true, if the secondary seal in the primary piston takes a shit on you it will leak out the back of the MC.. :cool:

[Rendon LX-i]

Well most of the time its the primary CODY...damnit dont jabbing your mouth SON lol..jk..yeah thats happens but the chances are slim to none..When you feel your pedal just slowwwy droping and never gets soft thats usally the issue.

But cody does have a point. either way your m/c is fucked lol

[Tdurr]

But cody does have a point. either way your m/c is fucked lol

lol thanks for the kind words :hmph:

[codyJDM]

Well most of the time its the primary CODY...damnit dont jabbing your mouth SON lol..jk..yeah thats happens but the chances are slim to none..When you feel your pedal just slowwwy droping and never gets soft thats usally the issue.

But cody does have a point. either way your m/c is fucked lol

haha true true, I am yet to see a secondary seal fail.

I second what rendon seconded. :tongue:

[Civic Accord Honda]

me needs an mc as well along with calipers , 3 brake lines , drums , shoes , rotors , pads :lol:
and the 2nd seal failed on my legends mc which caused it to leak all over the brake booster and eat the paint off it and the firewall

[mykwikcoupe]

Ive had 2 leaky MC before which surprised me becuase everything else on the car had little to no wear. The only other thing that went bad in 150k miles was a stuck caliper pin, bad power steering pump and the usual oil seal on the engine

[Tdurr]

i know one of the rear caliper bolts on the pass side is rounded off(i was sooo pissed to find this out). but besides that and this new prob, the brakes are holding up fine. *knock on wood*

[russiankid]

If you have rear disk's then the the e-brake has a mechanism inside the caliper that will push the piston out when you apply the e-brake. It doesn't have anything to do with the fluid as it has a screw inside that screws out everytime you pull the brake; so in return the piston gets pushed out. Same goes for drum brakes, there is a mechanism inside that pushes the shoes onto the drum, the cylinder stays put.

[w261w261]

I had to buy two new rear calipers a few years ago, and they a little hard to find even then. Both were almost frozen. Now, if the car is up on a lift for any reason, I have then relube the rear calipers. Has worked so far.

[Tdurr]

well regardless of the ebrake workings, On the way home from the V meet the pedal got soft again. Like there was air in the system. Grabbed fine but the pedal was soft and spongy as balls. i dono wtf is up. Gonna take it to my shop and see if they can help me out.

[Rendon LX-i]

its your master cynlinder bro...IM telling you, have your replaced it yet?

[Tdurr]

Yes. I replaced it, went to bleed them, got no pedal pressure, spent like 3 hours trying to bleed them then pulled the MC off again, bench bled it, put it on and it worked great.

Untill tonight. so im lost.

[Rendon LX-i]

you bench bled it..umm...ill have to get back to you on this.

[Tdurr]

yup lol. i know what im doing now. I work or cars all day everyday!

/sarcasm

[Tdurr]

shit balls!!!

So i hopped in the whip tonight to go to Arbys(mmm) and went down the road, hit the brakes and go "OH Shit!"
The fuckers when to the floor before grabbing at all. Like its back a square 1. they are acting like the brakes did right before the first bleeding.

Im confused, I'm pissed, cuz this + the window problem is tapping into the turbo money now and i have no income. :(

[ArokASE88LXi]

YAY I can post again!!! (my subscription ran out a few days ago and i couldn't figure out why i couldn't post) Anyways thought i'd toss in my two cents... i find the easiest way for me to find a problem such as your describing is to use brake line clamps on all 4 hoses near the top and if the pedals still soft it's not a problem with the hoses, calipers or any other basic brake assy. it's further up the line(mc, prop valve, metal lines, booster, etc.) If you've got a good pedal you slowly take off the clamps one at a time until you feel a problem. And yes i too have seen secondary seals fail and leak out all over, i've seen primary seals go bad, shit ive seen guys come into my shop with a mc half full of brake fluid and half full of oil wondering why his brakes don't work and asking if i can just bleed it out (came in with just the e-brake working & his two year old in the back seat) anything that can fail has in my experience (either by fate or some idiot doing something stupid ha ha ha) anyways give the line clamp thing a try it might help you narrow it down

[ArokASE88LXi]

oh and hey i don't mean to thread jack but anyone know the main thread on rear disc conversion? i found it the other night and cant find it again ugh!

[Oldblueaccord]

New or a reman MC? it does seem to be a MC problem still.

Not using any fluid correct?

wp

[Pico]

oh and hey i don't mean to thread jack but anyone know the main thread on rear disc conversion? i found it the other night and cant find it again ugh!

http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57902

[Tdurr]

New or a reman MC? it does seem to be a MC problem still.

Not using any fluid correct?

wp

reman. But i went by my shop today and they said try a new caliper and then rebleed everything. So gonna be at the JY tomorrow morning pulling stuff off again.

[mushroom_toy]

Well im donating two calipers to tim since Im never gonna use them (88-89) we gonna get his shit straightened out next week. :)

[Tdurr]

fuck. So im at lukes now and we are lost. We have bled all the calipers like 404t04935890438 times and there is not pedal pressure.

But what is weird is that my rear passenger and front driver lock up when i hit the brakes and there is fluid coming out of them when we bleed.

But the rear driver and front passenger dont lock up when i hit the brakes and no fluid comes out when we try and bleed them.

Help.

[Oldblueaccord]

Well it sounds like a snipe hunt now.

1. Reman MC cold be junk new or could have be compressed to far bleeding.

2. Calipers stuck or seals bad.

3. Proportioninal valve debri stuck a valve or its been destroyed internally.

4. MC air bound.

Ponder these things a little not sure if any of them are the silver bullet or not. Maybe pull the MC bench bleed / bleed it on car( I bent some small lines just for this) and follow the lines from there verifying you have pressure after the proportional valve,junctions etc.

I think the bleed seq. is not standard ,farthest away first, Ill dig thru the book.


wp

[Pico]

How about a bad prop. Valve?

[mushroom_toy]

Were about to change the prop valve.

[ArokASE88LXi]

fuck. So im at lukes now and we are lost. We have bled all the calipers like 404t04935890438 times and there is not pedal pressure.

But what is weird is that my rear passenger and front driver lock up when i hit the brakes and there is fluid coming out of them when we bleed.

But the rear driver and front passenger dont lock up when i hit the brakes and no fluid comes out when we try and bleed them.

Help.

that totally sounds like a prop valve to me since our cars (and most newer ones i think) use a split diagonal system meaning the front left and rear right are linked and the front right and rear left are linked. So if one line loses pressure you don't lose brakes just on one side you have some control. either that or your losin pressure on one of those corners somehow. i wouldn't think the mc would be bad if you've still got two corners lockin up. did you try clampin of the lines to see if your losin pressure somewhere or if it's in the mc?

[ArokASE88LXi]

if i were tryin to track down somehtin like that i think i'd try pumpin the shit outta the pedal for awhile and seein if it leaks somewhere or not.

[mushroom_toy]

Ok well we didnt change prop valves since we coudlnt get the old one off even with brake line wrenches. So he just bench bled the master cyl again and its working pretty good for now.

[ArokASE88LXi]

bummer soak those bad boys with pb blaster

[Tdurr]

they started to round off soooo.. yea lol.

but im so confused. I tried everything i could thing of short of replacing every brake line in the car and replacing the porp valve...

[ArokASE88LXi]

I found an sei at the jy other day got all the brakes, those prop lines came right off. they started to round with a wrench but just put a big pair of vice grips on em to crack em loose. since i got that prop valve i've still got one on my 88 lxi parts car. if ya think that's the problem i'd pretty much give it to ya if you think that'll fix the problem :dunno:

[mushroom_toy]

I found an sei at the jy other day got all the brakes, those prop lines came right off. they started to round with a wrench but just put a big pair of vice grips on em to crack em loose. since i got that prop valve i've still got one on my 88 lxi parts car. if ya think that's the problem i'd pretty much give it to ya if you think that'll fix the problem :dunno:

I gave him one already, only problem was we couldnt get the nuts loose. They started rounding even with brake wrenches.

[ArokASE88LXi]

Well that really sucks! wish i could help. well i guess rule out everything else and if ya have to replace it it's gotta come off only thing i can think of is a large pair of vice grips as tight as you can get them.

I'm still suspect of the mc if it's reman i've had countless problems with remans even right outta the box