steveatkins205

Hi all, any help on this would be appreciated as i need to travel 150 miles to work tomorrow morning and dont fancy doing it brake-less...

So, ive uprated from my standard disks and pads all over this weekend and now down to the bleeding as i took the caliper off and wanted to flush the system as i noticed that it was a little grainy deposits etc etc...

anyway, so ive fit the brakes and bled the system with some new fluid. only thing is i still get no brakes unless i pump them a few times first... i have bled the system now and am on to my second bottle of brake fluid already lol.

any suggestions of how you overcome if you had same problem would be very much appreciated...

cheers, steve

stockcar

you have re-fitted them on the correct side for starters??
the bleed nipples should point up!!

other than that may be you have a small air leak (around the banjo bolt as you've had them in bits??), or maybe you've allowed air into the rear lines when draining the fluid and haven't got them bled as well??

start at N/S/F then O/S/R..........O/S/F then N/S/R and this should help

alyn

steveatkins205

ill try than sequence now then. i went NSR, OSF, OSR, NSF...

sorry, yes they are fitted correct way... lol i was thinking that first time round..

hte banjo bolt? what is that? also if i don have air in rear lines whats best way to clear it then? just keep plumping i supose??

steveatkins205

Right, found out that its a leak from the near side rear brake. its the joint between the hose and the caliper. what should be present with them i.e. bolt washer etc. i just have the bolt and one washer. i have put an extra washer, it has slightly stopped the leak but not completley...

basically i have now got to go get it sorted in the morning or get the AA out lol.

if it is a hose that is the problem are they universal or do i need specific part?

cheers, Steve

RON

Steve, you should have two COPPER washers on the bolt, (banjo) basically, one each side of the ring bit that the bolt holds to the caliper, thats not a technical description, but one that a novice may inderstand..... IF you have used a steel washer, it will not compress and seal, hance the remaining slight leak i suspect.......

so basically, you need to find new copper washers...

steveatkins205

sounds right then!! will Halfords have them? ill go in the morning if they do. otherwise its a garage calling!...

RON

Halfords may have them, not sure, a small independant parts place is more likely.....you need the hole in the middle to be the right size, the outer size is irrelevant so long as it's bigger then the existing...... the inner size needs to be quite accurate though, otherwise the washer can sort of go off centre......

Chelspeed

You can reuse the old copper washers if you anneal them. Heat them cherry red on the gas stove and dunk them in cold water. They'll go a pink colour covered with scabby black deposits.

Wipe the black bits off with a rag and they'll be ready to use again, all soft again. This is an old trick I learnt to reuse RD400 head gaskets when I used to seize it every two weeks and got sick of buying new ones each time. Isn't O level metallurgy wonderful?

steveatkins205

well there was no copper washers present. i will get some in the morning from an auto specialist. cheers for your responses!

steve

steveatkins205

Ok, help required again please...

i took it to an independent garage this morning and no luck with the washers or bleeding. i have no leaks now and still no brakes... so i went to subaru in Northwich, Cheshire.

Basically subaru garage said its my master cylinder... dont know whats up except they seem to think thats its something to do with piston or something... basically they want £480 inc VAT for the whole lot... at this price and the purchase of the disks anyway i could of gone for the 335mm upgrades lol...

any comments appreciated if you think its a rip off or you have any other ideas what it could be..

Steve

ozzy

which piston exactly are they talking about? were the brakes working 100% before you changed the discs/pads and bled the system?

once you sorted the leak did you flush and rebleed the brakes?

Is the pedal completely flat or can you pump some pressure into the system?

I'd be very sceptical of a garage wanting £500 off me without a better explanation. if it is the master brake cylinder you could get a 2nd hand one from Grade A.

steveatkins205

ok, the brakes were perfect before i changed disks. then changed disks and bled system... found leak, fixed it then bled the system again..

took it to garage this morning, they bled it 'properly' then took it to subaru.

When i press on brake the pedal goes most of the way down with a little bit of brake right at the bottom. Bring it back up then back down and i have some braking like normal... before i put foot on brake and it just depressed slowly when all pressure was on it but that has stopped since fixing the leak.

rigga

iTrader: (4)

could be the master cylinder seals gone,but quite poss still air trapped in the system as when you depress the pedal a couple of times it gets slightly firmer ?? have i got that right? all the air has to be romoved from the pipework and caliper as air can be compressed but a fluid cannot,hence the long pedal travel but no real brake actuation,may or may not help but had this problem on bikes in the past,and the best way to get the air out is to pump the brake lever and then cable tie the lever to the handle bar,leave it like that over night and the air bubbles migrate up the pipework to the reservoir,tapping the pipework while under pressure also helps,just a mad thought but try locking the pedal down with a block of wood against the seat base overnight to see if that helps......... of course if the car is still in the garage thats asking to replace the master cylinder this might not help

steveatkins205

yeah, well the part is ordered now so i guess i can only have new part fitted. should i request the old part to inspect though? if that is buggered then im not othered but if its not then i think there may well be a problem with me and subaru!!

rigga

iTrader: (4)

mighty hard to tell if the part is faulty or not just by looking at it,and they are going to have to bleed the complete system again once they have changed it anyways......... have you got abs fitted? sometimes the abs body where all the brake pipes go into are sometimes hard to bleed,so that might be the problem,if they give the car back all sorted its gonna be hard to pinpoint what actually was at fault

steveatkins205

yeah, its got ABS. i thought that when i saw all the ABS pipes pointing up and though it would be difficult to bleed. but i did pressure bleed it with one of them kits. attached it to tyre to get pressure then directly on to reservoir then did the bleed from that! but still nothing...

ill let you all know tmora after its fitted!

steveatkins205

sorted. Subaru said was the master cylinder. was £298 to supply and fix in the end. not so bad. shown me the original but diddnt know what i was looking at so i just agreed to pay it... nevermind. these things happen.

but the brakes are working and i cant complain i suppose....

peterhum

You'd be suprised how often bleeding brakes by using the pedal kills the master cylinder seals; shouldn't happen with an 'ezi bleed' or similar- unless you get impatient and pump the pedal anyway. In 20yrs of motoring & DIY mechanicing, this has happened to me twice! (yes, I should have realised the first time- I was young & knew it all!)

Hope you're sorted now!

JamieMiller

[QUOTE=peterhum]You'd be suprised how often bleeding brakes by using the pedal kills the master cylinder seals; shouldn't happen with an 'ezi bleed' or similar- unless you get impatient and pump the pedal anyway. In 20yrs of motoring & DIY mechanicing, this has happened to me twice! (yes, I should have realised the first time- I was young & knew it all!)

Hi Peter, I've always bled my brakes with the pedal, probably changed my fluid about 4 times with no problems. I wasn't aware off this at all. Wouldn't have a clue where to start with these one man bleed things anyway.