Problem with brake bleeding.

Slykin

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Ok, so I've had a rear caliper(passenger side) leaking for months now. There were no symptoms of it as far as pedal feel, but it leaked like crazy. Well, the other day I got a reman caliper from O'Reilly's and switched em out. I then did a full brake bleed, making sure no air bubbles were coming out and that it was nice and clear. The problem now is that my brake pedal is REALLY spongy and my e-brake is almost completely useless(even more so than usual). I'm just not convinced that it isn't bled good enough... I've done it 3 times at that one particular caliper and once on all of them. Also worth mentioning, I can grab the caliper and slide it "in and out" with my hand. It's almost as if the piston isn't putting enough pressure on the pads at rest. Once the brake pedal is pressed though, it will clamp down fine. Not sure where to go with this anymore. It almost seems as if the caliper isn't self adjusting.
 
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Slykin

Slykin

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Sounds like a bad caliper. The piston is not supposed slide in with out getting turned at the same time. .

What I meant is that the whole caliper slides back and forth because it's not clamping on the pads. The piston doesn't move unless the brake pedal is pushed.
 

rz5.0

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The clearance between the pads and the disk should be small. . So with new pads and new caliper there should be very lil movement. .. Get someone to press the brake and see if your caliper is biting down on the rotor. .
 
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Slykin

Slykin

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The clearance between the pads and the disk should be small. . So with new pads and new caliper there should be very lil movement. .. Get someone to press the brake and see if your caliper is biting down on the rotor. .

The pads are actually old, but they're pretty thick. When the brake pedal is pressed down the caliper does clamp down, it just has to move a lot and then it doesn't clamp down very hard.
 

slow90coupe

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Did you bleed it at the master cylinder? I had a terrible feeling pedal until I bled the master cylinder. But it sounds like something's up with that caliper.
 

rz5.0

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Did you bleed them the right way. . Start in the pass side rear then driver side rear then front pass finish at drive front. Sounds like air.. your piston getting sucked back into the caliper. ..
 
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Slykin

Slykin

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Did you bleed it at the master cylinder? I had a terrible feeling pedal until I bled the master cylinder. But it sounds like something's up with that caliper.

No, I have no idea how that's done lol.

Did you bleed them the right way. . Start in the pass side rear then driver side rear then front pass finish at drive front. Sounds like air.. your piston getting sucked back into the caliper. ..

I did :/
 
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Slykin

Slykin

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Just to keep everyone updated, I got it today finally. I guess the problem was that the car had its ass end up way in the air. Once I leveled it out I got a nice big air pocket out of the caliper on first bleed.
 

RichV

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Nice. I do a gravity bleed once in a while, seems to work the best IMO. You just gotta let it go for a few days. But the ABS hardware/lines on these cars makes it hard to get everything out. Seems like these *****es have like 2 gallons of brake fluid.
 

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