I just installed new rotor and full ceramic pads in front and rear and now every time I brake hard my brakes bite hard but then soften up if I hold the brakes down to long or heat them up to the point that they smoke a bit. Well they dont actually smoke but I have a trail of hot pads you can smell… My foot will actually hit the firewall and the bite in my calipers will dissapear leavingme with a soft pedal… I checked my fluids and theyre all topped off, I had the same probleme before i changed my brakes and thougt I would of fixed this with the upgrade I did…
Pads I got are the duralast gold series from autozone full ceramic…
Replace your Brake Master Cylinder with a new one. Bleed it right with starting on Rear Right corner > Front Left > Rear Driver > Front Passenger. This should put it back to normal.
I just replaced my brake master cylinder about 1 year ago since it was leaking, I could change it again but Im not to sure its the issue.
My abs is working fine since my brakes never lock or myabe to good since they soften and when the pressure drops the pedal goes all the way down.
The brake master cylinder was installed by a honda tech and bled all the lines…
If you guys think its my bms then Ill go ahead and change it since I have a life time warrenty form autozone. is there any way on tseting it?
side note: I do remember that 6 months ago after my swap I was out enjoying my vtec and slamed the brakes to avoid a car that changed lanes infront of me without signaling and my brakes pulsaded instead of locking as if i was pumping my brakes… now it doesnt even do that anymore…
definitely do this^^ thoroughly before changing anything. especially since the master was changed not all that long ago, probably for this same issue. it may not have been bench bled entirely. what i like to do after bench bleeding and changing the MC, is bleed the brakes at the lines at the MC. have someone pump the brakes, then crack and close each line in sequence. air gets in there when you have the lines off and is very difficult get out as it sits much higher than the bleeder screws at the calipers. a power bleeder is actually the best thing to use, but you can try bleeding at the lines.
and i wouldn’t suspect a leak, as the fluid level isn’t dropping.
the burning smell is just the new pads and rotors. that will go away after a couple of days.
you did clean the rotors before you installed them, right?
When you purchase a new master cylinder, you need to bench bleed it before putting it on the car. You can do this after the fact and bleed the mater cylinder by taking the lines off it, and doing it that way. Also when bleeding brakes you always start at the furthest brake caliper from the master cylinder working your way to the closest, this will ensure that all the air is out.
But your problem sounds more along the lines of… lines. If you had an emergency stop, it is very possible (and likely) to have compromised the brake lines so they will expand under hard braking (as opposed to staying rigid). Another problem that it could be is that your fluid is not standing up to the temperatures. If your fluid is old or not rated for track use, it’s possible that you are actually boiling the fluid causing it to bubble and give you the feel of a mushy pedal.
If you don’t see your fluid levels going down at all the above is probably the most likely cause.
ok I finally got around to bleed all of my brake lines and It seems like I did have alote of air in the lines… Bubbles came out on the first 3 bleeds on each corner, and my brakes feel way better now. What sucks is that it takes a lil longer for the pedal to get soft under hard brakeing.
Before it would take 1 hard stop from like 80-0mph and now it takes about 2 and the pedal starts to feel soft. I think I might have a vacume leak some where or how do I keep getting air in the damm lines… I checked all the fittings and lines and dont see any leaks…
[QUOTE=da6xsi06;2173387]ok I finally got around to bleed all of my brake lines and It seems like I did have alote of air in the lines… Bubbles came out on the first 3 bleeds on each corner, and my brakes feel way better now. What sucks is that it takes a lil longer for the pedal to get soft under hard brakeing.
Before it would take 1 hard stop from like 80-0mph and now it takes about 2 and the pedal starts to feel soft. I think I might have a vacume leak some where or how do I keep getting air in the damm lines… I checked all the fittings and lines and dont see any leaks…[/QUOTE]
A Vacuum leak would make you have increased pedal effort, not a soft pedal. If you aren’t losing any fluid I would bet that you are just boiling the brake fluid. You might want to try stepping up to a DOT 4 or 5 fluid which has a higher boiling point.
Do you get a soft pedal over time when you aren’t doing ridiculously high speed stops?
Try a few things, though. When the car is off, pump the brakes and see if the pedal force becomes greater to the point where the pedal is basically stiff. Now hold down on the brake and see if you feel the pedal start to sink. If the pedal does start to sink, you have a leak somewhere; perhaps internally in the master cylinder. Also when doing this have a friend look under the car to see if they can hear a hissing, or see a visible leak.
If you are getting air in your lines, you either have a leak or are boiling the fluid.
Ya I agree, sounds more so like your getting brake fade over a soft pedal. Maybe switch to a better dot 4 or even a dot 5 fluid and REALLY flush and bleed the system. Motul makes great race style brake fluid. Oh and btw those pads are kinda crappy especially being ceramic. Cermaic pads are quieter but tend to eat rotors yet not stop as well as a semi metallic. Good brake pads is a must especially if your doing a lot of 80-0 stops
I would of gotten the full metalic brake pads but is seems like they dont make them for my car anymore so I had to go with the full ceramic. Maybe later down the road ill find them but I had to settle for less. Im useing the valvoline full synthetic dot 3-4 brake fluid so I dont get how the fluid could be the cause.
