I've noticed the brakes on my Wife's Daica Logan feeling a bit poor lately. While the brakes worked, there seemed to be excessive travel in the pedal and a lack of modulation.
The car has discs up front and drums in the rear.
I replaced the rear brakes 6 months ago as one of the brake shoe linings became detached and caused some interesting issues.
The front brakes appeared to be original but the discs were still within specification and there was meat on the pads. Quite amazing after 110,000miles.
Yesterday I made the decision to replace the brakes up front. I stripped the old brakes off, cleaned everything thoroughly and installed a new set of R90 spec Bosch front discs and pads.
I then popped the rear drums off, cleaned the slight lip on the inner edge, thoroughly cleaned the internals, lubricated what was required and buttoned all back up.
After all this I flushed a pint of fresh brake fluid through each corner using a pressure bleeder. The old fluid was pretty nasty.
But still, the pedal seems wrong. This is what we are experiencing...
When the engine is off, the brake pedal when pumped once or twice is rock hard.
When the engine is running, the brake pedal sinks to around 1/2 way, then slowly sinks to 3/4 of the travel over 10 seconds or so with constant pressure.
When driving, the first 1/2 pedal doesn't do a great deal. Maybe some very slight braking. Between that 1/2 way to 3/4 way the brakes can be somewhat modulated.
If you anchor on, the car stops very well. Enough stopping power that the ABS kicks in.
My thoughts currently are as follows...
There can't be air in the system as the pedal is rock hard with the engine off.
If the master cylinder was failing, I'd expect a sinking pedal when the engine was off also.
Is this a brake booster issue?
The car has discs up front and drums in the rear.
I replaced the rear brakes 6 months ago as one of the brake shoe linings became detached and caused some interesting issues.
The front brakes appeared to be original but the discs were still within specification and there was meat on the pads. Quite amazing after 110,000miles.
Yesterday I made the decision to replace the brakes up front. I stripped the old brakes off, cleaned everything thoroughly and installed a new set of R90 spec Bosch front discs and pads.
I then popped the rear drums off, cleaned the slight lip on the inner edge, thoroughly cleaned the internals, lubricated what was required and buttoned all back up.
After all this I flushed a pint of fresh brake fluid through each corner using a pressure bleeder. The old fluid was pretty nasty.
But still, the pedal seems wrong. This is what we are experiencing...
When the engine is off, the brake pedal when pumped once or twice is rock hard.
When the engine is running, the brake pedal sinks to around 1/2 way, then slowly sinks to 3/4 of the travel over 10 seconds or so with constant pressure.
When driving, the first 1/2 pedal doesn't do a great deal. Maybe some very slight braking. Between that 1/2 way to 3/4 way the brakes can be somewhat modulated.
If you anchor on, the car stops very well. Enough stopping power that the ABS kicks in.
My thoughts currently are as follows...
There can't be air in the system as the pedal is rock hard with the engine off.
If the master cylinder was failing, I'd expect a sinking pedal when the engine was off also.
Is this a brake booster issue?