My wife's 2002 Corolla was using the original brake fluid (yikes), hoses, calipers and wheel cylinders. Her brakes started feeling kinda wooden a few months ago, just slowly losing their feel and grab to the point that she has lost her confidence in them if she ever had to panic stop, but they worked OK. Brakes should be better than 'OK' especially for a loved one so they needed attention.
I inspected the rear brakes, did a minor adjustment and bled them without issue, getting rid of lots of nasty dark fluid. This did not help the 'lack of feel' problem at all but it was certainly worth doing anyway. The shoes are dry, the wheel cylinders are working and the hoses look fine.
Moving to the front, I proceeded to snap off the bleeder screw on the passenger side caliper, bringing this project to a screeching halt. Awesome. Might as well replace the rusty nasty calipers anyway, and while I'm at it, the hoses too. Fast-forward a few weeks to this past weekend, and the right front caliper, bracket and hose have all been replaced and bled properly (front pads and rotors have plenty of life left so they weren't replaced). I took the car for a drive and it still felt exactly the same. No better unfortunately but not any worse either.
The driver's side caliper and hose were replaced last and the lines bled thoroughly. Took the car for a drive and the pedal is now quite a bit lower(!) but they grab a little better(?) now which makes no sense at all. I drove it around the neighborhood and they do work well enough to stop the car safely but they feel very different and do not inspire a lot of confidence. I fumed about it overnight and proceeded to bleed the entire system again yesterday, getting nothing but bubble-free clean fluid from each corner. The problem still persists.
I'm trying to come up with a checklist of things I can look at before I take it somewhere to have the system bled with some super-super special vacuum machine only to come up with the same result. I just don't see how there is any air hiding in the Corolla's relatively simple non-ABS system at this point. I've ruled out the master cylinder since it is not exhibiting any typical MC issues like leaking from the rear seal or fading pedal requiring a quick extra pump. The pedal never hits the floor either.
Going on the fact that this didn't happen until the driver's front corner was done, I'm going to assume the problem is there somewhere. Bad new hose that's expanding (unlikely)? Caliper with wrong size piston meant for a different car and packaged wrong (also unlikely)? Hydraulic-locked slide pins that have too much grease packed in them pushing the caliper off the pad when pedal pressure is released? I'm running out of ideas here. I need to get back under the car again tonight with some fresh eyeballs and figure this out.
I inspected the rear brakes, did a minor adjustment and bled them without issue, getting rid of lots of nasty dark fluid. This did not help the 'lack of feel' problem at all but it was certainly worth doing anyway. The shoes are dry, the wheel cylinders are working and the hoses look fine.
Moving to the front, I proceeded to snap off the bleeder screw on the passenger side caliper, bringing this project to a screeching halt. Awesome. Might as well replace the rusty nasty calipers anyway, and while I'm at it, the hoses too. Fast-forward a few weeks to this past weekend, and the right front caliper, bracket and hose have all been replaced and bled properly (front pads and rotors have plenty of life left so they weren't replaced). I took the car for a drive and it still felt exactly the same. No better unfortunately but not any worse either.
The driver's side caliper and hose were replaced last and the lines bled thoroughly. Took the car for a drive and the pedal is now quite a bit lower(!) but they grab a little better(?) now which makes no sense at all. I drove it around the neighborhood and they do work well enough to stop the car safely but they feel very different and do not inspire a lot of confidence. I fumed about it overnight and proceeded to bleed the entire system again yesterday, getting nothing but bubble-free clean fluid from each corner. The problem still persists.
I'm trying to come up with a checklist of things I can look at before I take it somewhere to have the system bled with some super-super special vacuum machine only to come up with the same result. I just don't see how there is any air hiding in the Corolla's relatively simple non-ABS system at this point. I've ruled out the master cylinder since it is not exhibiting any typical MC issues like leaking from the rear seal or fading pedal requiring a quick extra pump. The pedal never hits the floor either.
Going on the fact that this didn't happen until the driver's front corner was done, I'm going to assume the problem is there somewhere. Bad new hose that's expanding (unlikely)? Caliper with wrong size piston meant for a different car and packaged wrong (also unlikely)? Hydraulic-locked slide pins that have too much grease packed in them pushing the caliper off the pad when pedal pressure is released? I'm running out of ideas here. I need to get back under the car again tonight with some fresh eyeballs and figure this out.
