Car has had squishy brakes since I bought it in '01. I could stop fine with just alot of pedal travel. I thought it was just the GM thing. But I got sick of it and bled them correctly with help. They got worse. I figured it was the master cylinder as the fresh fluid now bypassed the seals easier. After replacement, I put about a half gallon of fluid through the lines until it was clear at the wheels and all air was gone. The brakes got even worse yet. I pretty much hit the floor on normal stops. Rotors are fine and pads are about half gone. No fluid leaks, no siezed calipers, lines aren't pinched. I don't see why I can't even get a hard peddle after bleeding. I believe the rubber lines are original. Anyone replaced these with steel braided to get rid ot this problem? I'm pretty much out of ideas. Thanks
Cheeze
'90 Z24
If it's ABS Keep Bleeding them until it feels right- ABS takes alot longer to be bled-
it sounds like the brake booster
I live my life a quarter pounder at a time. And For that 11 sec or less it takes me to devour one I am free.
No, j-bodies were not equipped with ABS in 1990. Also what is the reasoning behind saying the booster is bad. That is for vacuum assist which contains a high pressure spring to ASSIST in easier pedal push. If it goes to the floor easily, I see no reason for a bad booster. It also let out a loud vacuum woosh when I disconnected the vacuum line. Are you guys real J-body enthusiats or are you just guessing.
Cheeze
'90 Z24
I would say a leak, getting air in you lines, makeing them mushy. But they would be good and strong if you blead them, then would become mushy again. If you not loosing fluid, this probly would not be the case. My only other guess would be master cylinder. If the pettel dose not get stiff from pumping them with the engine off (with no leaks), that would probly be your best bet.
The safe bet would be just take it to a break shop and let them fix it. Breaks are something you can't live with out.
pull ur drums of and make sure your back wheel cylinders aren't leaking
bleeding them may have cleaned out n e crap that was in them b4, making them leak worse, inturn making the pedal softer
Cheezer Holio wrote:No, j-bodies were not equipped with ABS in 1990. Also what is the reasoning behind saying the booster is bad. That is for vacuum assist which contains a high pressure spring to ASSIST in easier pedal push. If it goes to the floor easily, I see no reason for a bad booster. It also let out a loud vacuum woosh when I disconnected the vacuum line. Are you guys real J-body enthusiats or are you just guessing.
Cheeze
'90 Z24
the reason i said that is becuse that is what mine was doing and i got a booster but on and that fixed it
I live my life a quarter pounder at a time. And For that 11 sec or less it takes me to devour one I am free.
In case anyone else has these symptoms, this was the problem. The old front caliper mounting sliders were stuck in the rubber bushing. This was keeping the caliper from centering itself and it was simply angling the pad out into the rotor instead of applying equal force and moving over. The pads were worn at an angle and the inner one more than the outer by quite a bit. I put on 2 new calipers, new pads, and new rubber brake lines up front. Only costs $61 and now it stops like new. And if you were wondering why I didn't just take it to a shop it's because I 've taken enough automotive classes and worked on enough GM cars that I know the only thing a shop would have done was to replace all the hardware i did and then ask questions if it didn't work. A non-ABS brake system is extremely simple and there's no way a booster could have been the problem. The leaking rear cylinders was a decent guess although not the problem. The older j-cars have four independent brake lines and is not a diagonally split system, meaning even if I had no rear brakes, I should have been able to stop fine because in normal braking, the fronts do 70% of the work and can do 100% with with a little more effort. Now you know the rest of the story.
Cheeze
'90 Z24
I've had this problem on another car, it was the seal on the rear cyl. What was happening was the O ring was letting brake fluid leak into the drum, whch would burn off so there was no dribbles in the driveway. And when you let off the pedal, it would suck air in, making the pedal like you described.
I'd try bleeding again and see if there's air in either rear cyl.
John Wilken
2002 Cavalier
2.2 Vin code 4
Auto
