Hi, I'm after a bit of advice please regarding the brakes on my Impreza Sport. It is a "P"reg 2ltr sport. I bought this car a few weeks ago to use as a road rally car in standard form. The car had been stood for a while. The pedal is very soft and requires pumping to get it hard. Once it's hard, if I keep my foot on the pedal, it will stay hard. As soon as I leave go of the pedal then press it again, it is soft again. I noticed while holding my foot on the pedal keeping it hard, as soon as I pressed the clutch in, the brake pedal starts dropping to the floor. I've noticed that the clutch fork on top of the gearbox is linked to the brake system via a cable to a cylinder on the N/S inner wing. Has anybody got any advice on this problem? Thanks.

 

Sounds like air in the system

The sports have a hill climb system,where the clutch also controls the handbrake,cant remember the full workings of it, been a few yrs since i owned a sport, but its something like you apply the brakes and with the brake pedal applied press down the clutch and this keeps the handbrake on.

 

Ok thanks for that. Is there a sequence for bleeding impreza brakes, read about 2 different sequences and not sure which is correct.

 

not really, i usually do the front then the opposite croner, so i`ll do the left front/right rear then right front/left rear

cheers

 

Ok thanks.

 

And DO keep the master cylinder topped up, or it will draw in more air.

You might have to go round twice to get it right.

BTW: have you checked the master cylinder level?

 

Heyup mate I had this with my project sport when I bought it.


If its been stood for time you might find the calipers have seized up. Mine had... But for 20quid I got some cheap 2 pots (instead of 1 cylinder standard) then you can increase your disc size from 260mm to 280mm new grooved discs with pads cost about 100quid from bay.

Then unsurprisingly I found my master cylinder nackered so again the bay- 30QUID.

What I'm saying here is even if everythings nackered, you can get an entire upgraded system for 130.

Although it may not be necessary, it may just need a good bleed. Bleeding is a difficult thing to get right on imprezas and I agree with the above that regular level checking will help avoid doing/having it done more than once.

My calipers were solid, and my discs nackered when I bought the car so that upgrade seemed logical, and my pedal felt exactly as you describe.

 

I changed the pads on the front the other day, so I know the the caliper pistons are free. I keep a close eye on the fluid level whilst bleeding the brakes too. Today, I saw a friend of the previous owner and mentioned this problem, he told me that the previous owner had changed a front leg a few weeks ago and mentioned he bled the brakes. Reading between the lines, I think I will spend some time bleeding the all four corners of the braking system.
suBruce, will the 280mm setup fit under standard Impreza 15" alloys?

 

Might be a long shot, but check that bleed nipples are on TOP of calipers......

 

Yea, bleed nipples are on the top

 

When bleeding, start at the caliper furthest away from the master cylinder and work towards the master cylinder.

However, with yours being a sport, does it have rear discs? Or drums?

 

It has drums, Handbrake works well

 

Hi again,

Glad to hear your calipers are working well, My 280mm setup fits with tonnes of space within 17inch alloys that came on the car.

With standard 15 inch alloys I'd be highly surprised if they didn't fit quite comfortably given its only 1 inch either side and there would be no issues with offset comparably. In fact I'd say with 90% confidence it would easily fit.

It prob wouldn't make huge differences I mean its one very large piston (in standard) against two smaller ones in the 2pots and 20mm on the discs. For me it was a performance upgrade because the old ones didn't have performance in the sense that they failed to slow down the car in any way shape or form!

Its cheap to do though so I say why not! If you have more money to put into the car go all the way and get some nice 4 pots but then you'll pay substantially more, hen I id mine it was a cheap project and a cheap mod.

Best of luck with your car

 

before spending loads of money on upgrades which dont really need as my brakes s**t hot on standard pads ect make sure evrything else working first had big issue with my car/brakes and later found out was hill climb issue with clutch/brake compensator not in right position therefore brakes sticking on even though all calipers were free