I sent my front calipers off for a refurbishment, and installed braided hoses all round, I previously took the master cylinder off and bench bled it, but I have gone through almost two litres of fluid now, and the brakes are still very soft.

I bled the brakes in the correct order, FR RL FL RR, what am I doing wrong, or is there a step I have missed?

I was using a vacuum bleeder off ebay which broke, and then tried gravity bleeding.

Thanks

 

You've still got air in the system.

Do it the old fashion two-man way. The cheap vacuum jobs never work - you need a compressor to do it that way.

If you still have trapped air, then I'd look at the seals on the M/C, as they maybe not be seated correctly since you refitted it and they are introducing air into the system.

 

Thanks for the advice, would you know if there is any truth in air being in abs unit, and the only way to remove is to do a few hard stops then rebleed the brakes?

 

It's more the case of old fluid being in the ABS unit than air.

When I did the brakes on my Scooby last year, I bled them furthest from the M/C to the shortest, as I had read on here (against my better judgement, I may add) and I had a very soft pedal. Drove it a bit and clearly there was air in the system.

So re-bled the correct way (twin circuit, diagonal split, as per your first post) and I had a load of air out the RL caliper. That fixed it.

I then drove it for a week or so, including bedding in the new pads/discs, then re-bled again but there was only a tiny bit of air in one line (may have been the ABS unit).


So I would suggest you 2-man bleed and if all is good, test the brakes and try and activate the ABS (not just hard stops, you need to get it to activate, so find somewhere that you can safely brake that is slippy - gravel car park for example), then bleed again to be sure. I don't believe that the ABS unit would cause the issue you are describing.

Also, check all fitting that you have touched - MC, brake lines, fitting etc. Also, make sure the bleed nipples are done up tight - I hadn't done so on one of the outer nipples on my AP calipers and it was weeping fluid each time I pressed the pedal - obviously not great for braking!

 

Make sure the calipers are on the correct sides so the bleed nipples are at the top.

 

Ive fallen for this one If they've had the bleed nipples replaced with 6mm head items, be careful you don't round them off. They're as soft as s**te.

 

Thanks guys, bled agian using the two man method, pedal is better, but not great, still an improvement on before.

 

What are you comparing them too? Subaru's are over-servoed like VAG cars for example, where the pedal is basically an on/off switch. There will be a degree of travel before initial bite, helps with the modulation.

 

To be honest its been so long since I drove the car I cant remember what it felt like! I dop remember it not being as hard as I'd like, but have been driving my sister's 1.6 Nissan and its not that much better, I had hoped that installing braided hoses would have firmed it up a bit, but not really much difference.

I do have some free play in the pedal which I'll hopefully fix today, and next thing will be a brake stopper. I do appreciate you're help