mushy brakes! help!
 

Ok, so me and my friend replaced my front rotors and pads today and everything fit right and seemed to go back perfectly. he's done brakes many times and hasnt really made many mistakes. but when we took it for a test drive, the brakes were mush, it felt like i was stepping on mud. the only way i can get the brakes to stop decently is by steeping on the pedal hard. his dad thinks we need to bleed the whole system....any thoughts?

i though it was simple to change the pads. take off the caliper, put the new ones on and put the caliper back on. done.... lol. what else do you need to do?

yea.....if you read what i wrote, we did that part already. but now the brakes dont respond well, its like stepping on mud. what i need to know is if i need to bleed the lines or if its something else.

what is "bleed the lines?".lol

bleed the brake lines.....to check for air in the brake fluid.

yes you should bleed the lines

Bleed the crap outa them!

You only need to bleed them if you opened the lines up that go to the caliper. So if you did then yes you have air and need to bleed them. If you didnt open the lines could be oil on the pads etc.

I would look at the lines and make sure none are leaking. Also make sure you put the cap on the brake resevoir. I like to bleed the brakes to get new fluid in there.

Bleed em just to be sure. A soft pedal is a sure sign of a hydraulic issue. Bleed the master cylinder too. Might as well (BTW, do that before you do the rest of the system). Once you finish the MC, start at the passenger rear and move closer to the MC 1 wheel at a time.

Are there any circles around the rotor face that are shiny-er than the rest of the face?

no we didnt open the lines at any point during the rotor/pad replacement, but i believe there was a slight amount of air in the lines before we did the replacement...it just seems worse now. and a new development today is that there is already a mark around the whole rotor, but there isnt any contact in that area i can see. we are going to bleed the lines tonight and see if there is anything else that we can see. any input from your own experience would help the process

how do u bleed the lines? i know how but what are the steps are or is it the same for all cars?

just another quick thing. i wa sjust looking at a post someone made about how to replace rotors. one of the steps he wrote for putting the caliper back on is to open the bleeder valve before clamping the pistons....we clamped the pistons but didnt open the bleeder valve. would missing that step cause the problem i'm having?

No that would not cause your problem. Try and bleed the brakes and I would aslo take the caliper off and make sure you got it on there right. Also you did wash the protective coating off the rotors right?(assuming there was one on there)

You do not open the bleeder valve only uncap the brake fluid cap that way the liquid gets pushed back in the reservoir.

To bleed the system start from the longest line which is the passenger rear. Hook a rubber hose to the bleeder and the other end of the hose inside a glass jar so you can see the fluid come out. Open the bleeder and have someone push down on the pedal slowly and steady several times. I usaully have the person count out loud and at the last pedal push while the liquid is coming out I Ill close the bleeder. You will repeat for the rest of the lines. NOTE: When you are pumping the pedal the brake cap has to be on or you will get fluid all over the place. Avoid letting the reservoir get low as this will introduce air into the system and you will have to bleed the master cylinder. To avoid all this make sure its topped off at all times and do not let it get to the point where its emptied out.

I bleed the system clean and after Im done the lquid is all clear.

Haha, I just changed my pads this past Saturday, hate that you had problems with yours though. But yeah, you need to bleed them just like Venom explained. Before I changed them they were a little mushy and had a long travel, now they were firm with a short pedal reach.

how do u bleed the master cylinder?

Same way, except you crack open the bleeder valves on the MC.

thanks for all of your help guys. we bled the whole system last night and now everything is back to normal.

good

Its better not to introduce air into the master cylinder, avoid it. There is no reason why air should get in the master cylinder unless the fluid gets that low in reservoir.