Brake Failure?!?!

I forgot to mention that my vehicle is a 1996 Saturn SL2. Up until this brake failure, it has been working flawlessly since I bought it used, four years ago.

"Bojangles043" wrote: > Last weekend i decided it was time to replace my brake pads. I > went around to all the wheels and replaced the pads, as well > as the disks on the front wheels. This operation is something > I've done a number of times and on a number of different > vehicles, so it's not new to me. > > However, when I got back into my car, thinking the brakes > would be great, I was disappointed to find that the brakes > were much worse than before. It felt as if I would not get any > braking power until about an inch from the floor. Naturally, I > assumed there was air in the brake lines. I than proceeded to > go around to the car bleeding the brakes (the old fashioned > way). > > After doing this twice, I was again disappointed to find that > the brakes had not improved even the slightest. Looking around > on the web I figured that the failure must be the master brake > cylinder. I went out and bought a rebuild kit and got that all > done. When I had everything bolted down and plenty of brake > fluid (the correct kind for my car) in the resevoir, I was > AGAIN disappointed to find the brakes were worse. It felt as > if there was absolutely no resistance, other than the spring, > on the pedal. > > SO... after such a long description of the problem... I am > wondering if anyone out there has had such a trouble, and if > so, how they went about fixing it. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR > HELP!

i appreciate your ideas... thanks!

Are you pushing fluid with good pressure when you bleed them? Also - you do know (right?), that you have to cross bleed ABS brakes. Left front, then right rear, then right front, then right rear, ad-nauseum. I generally open the bleeders and let them gravity bleed - makes the process a great deal easier. Bleeding ABS can be a pain in the butt.

How did you retract the rear caliper pistons? What did you do to take up the slack in the rear brake pistons once the new pads were installed?

"Mike Marlow" wrote

Mike, where are you getting your information about cross bleeding ABS brakes? I've never heard of it. It's certainly does not apply to any GM vehicles that I've ever worked on. If there are specific models that you know about, please let me know.

Ian

It was on my GM's that I was advised about this Ian. I can't point you to a document though. It was something that I was advised of when chasing a bleeding problem on a Park Ave Ultra and later again on a Sunbird. I was advised by a (maybe more than one) GM tech that at least on the GM systems, the opposing corners are paired in the ABS control. I thought I had later read something in one of my manuals that backed this up, but I can't say for sure.

It's kind of funny Ian - when I first encountered this information it seemed like I was the only one on the planet that didn't know it. No matter whether it's correct or not - it's nice to have some company...

Dual diagonal braking has been present on some GM cars going back to the first FWD X body cars (Citation, Phoenix, Omega).

Haven't seen one yet where the bleeding sequence has you start at the front though...

"Mike Marlow" wrote

No problem, I just thought that perhaps there was some new aspect to brake bleeding that I hadn't come across.

We do run into "some" different ways of bleeding brakes, but it usually involves vehicles with Stabilitrac systems (these days, anyway).

Ian

Ah - I see the question now. Sorry guys - I was not intending to mean start at the front. I was simply trying to spell out the diagonal aspect.