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Peugeot 405 Braking woes

Sorry this is a long one...

The brakes on my 405 have always been a bit spongy and slowly got a bit worse over time until it became dangerous. Anyway, bled all the brakes and made no difference so assumed it was the master cyclinder.

Replaced that with a new one and beld all four lines again (using a pressure based Gunson Eezibleed), and still got spongy brakes.

Basically doesn't 'bite' and the pedal goes almost to the floor. Even then, with full effort braking is decidedly 'dodgy' to say the least.

Any thoughts? Thoughts are:

1) Could I still have air trapped in the system (is that possible with eezibleed?). I didn't bleed the master cylinder before installing, could that have air in it or would the eezibleed release that? 2) before trying with eezibleed I just used a system that had a one way valve to stop air going back and pumped the pedal. Didn't work (probably due to too much air in the system), but I read on one forum that you can rupture a new master cylinder by pushing the pedal to the floor. Might I have done this and need yet another one? 3) Could it be a problem in the calipers or rear cylinders (rear drum brakes) 4) Might the rear self adjuster be wrong allowing too much pedal movement. (But surely that would still allow a good braking performance when it finally got to bite...which it doesn't)

5) Could it be the servo? But that wouldn't make the brakes spongy would it?

Can anyone think of a diagnostic procedure to try and track the problem down? Is it possible to check the calipers? (replaced rear cylinders as a matter of course)

Cheers

Mark

Reply to
Mark
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Most likely reason is you've still got air in the system, you might just have spongy fexible brake hoses, clamp all the hoses off & see if it's still spongy.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

I would still suggest you have air in the system. Does it have ABS, some ABS systems need a special procedure to bleed them properly.

If no ABS get some hose clamps and try clamping each hose at wheel, but at the inboard end and try the brake again.

Doing you in fact mean spongy, or the brake pedal going down slowly - which would indicate a leak?

Turn the engine off, pump the pedal several times to exhaust the vacuum in the servo. Now press the pedal hard, it should feel solid and hardly move at all. If that seems OK, are you sure you are not mistaking the normal action of the servo for the brakes feeling spongy - it is easy to be fooled?

If I have concerns, I swap feet, braking with my left foot when there are no vehicles behind me.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Thanks Harry, definately spongy and serious lack of braking ability when fully down.

I'll foloow your advice and see where it takes me

Thanks

Mark

Reply to
Mark

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