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Soft brake Pedal?

33K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  VTT5 
#1 ·
I've seen many here speak of a soft brake pedal.

Well I just want to say that I had that problem and thought it was normal. Then 3 weeks ago I flushed all my brake fluid with Prestone synthetic. That alone made a big difference. I was really surprised. A week after that I replaced my brake pads and rotors with Monroe Ceramic pads and Raybestos Advanced technology rotors. I got to say that I am very very very happy with the out come.

The point I'm trying to stress here is flush your fluid! It matters!
I'm going to start doing this every year.

:m2:
 
#8 ·
I am getting a little tired of my pedal being to soft too.But the good side is no one, or my wife will drive it ,and i like that LOL.

Just wanted to know when you flushed the break lines how many bottles of Preston did it take I have 3 small bottles already ,think i need more?
 
#11 ·
Just wanted to know when you flushed the break lines how many bottles of Preston did it take I have 3 small bottles already ,think i need more?
In my experience, you can get fresh fluid to all four corners with around 1 Liter of brake fluid; have more on hand if you want to really work it through or if your new fluid isn't a different color (I like using blue every other time so it's real easy to tell when I've reached the new stuff).
 
#10 · (Edited)
That sounds like air in the lines then,You really don't have to flush the lines with air in them ,you just need to bleed the air out of the lines , .But then again that is a 2004 ,so flushing wouldn't hurt.the noise I am not sure ,some time when there is air in the lines and you are pumping the pedal you can here a springy noise that sounds like it is coming from around the pedal or from the break booster,

But bleed the lines or flush them ,if the noise is still there you can have some one check the break booster to see if that's where the noise is coming from ,,just in case it is the Diaphragm ,,,could be a small hole in it.probably not ,,,Probably just need to bleed them, and the noise could just be a squeaky pedal

If after all this and the noise is still there
Try this ,you said the breaks pump up after 2 pumps..OK turn car on ,,pump breaks 3 or 4 times till they come up as far as they will...after the forth pump hold the break down hard'''don't stand on them''' with out leaving up after the pumping,,,hold it down hard for say 10 ,,20 even 30 seconds and listen very close to see if the noise is there '''A slow steady noise'' like air is escaping. and if the break pedal is going down slowly to the floor,,if it dose ,it could be a small hole in the break booster Diaphragm..which would be under the hood on the firewall,, so someone could listen out there too while you do this,,


But it sounds like it is just air ,so don't panic about anything i wrote here...LOL
 
#14 ·
gpanther, what you do is add new fluid through the reservoir under the hood, and force it through the system, pushing the old fluid out through the bleeder screws in each caliper.

Some folks swear by the two man method (one person pumps the brakes, and the other opens/closes the bleeder so that it's open when the pedal is depressed and closed when it is lifted (so air isn't pulled back into the system). One caveat here is to make sure the brake pedal doesn't go all the way to the floor, as exceeding its normal range of travel can damage system components.

A cheap one-man option is a vacuum bleeder, which attaches to the bleeder screw and creates a vacuum to pull the fluid through. You just need to keep the reservoir topped off.

I prefer to use a power bleeder, which really is just a bottle you fill with fluid and pressurize to force the fluid through the system. With a catch bottle in place at the caliper with the bleeder open, this can become a one man operation, since the positive pressure can be maintained throughout, and you're not constantly having to top off the reservoir.

This is the brand I use (this particular site was a quick grab, not researched for best price): http://www.trackhaus.com/motive-power-bleeders-c-65.html
 
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