Several weeks ago i was out for a drive when it felt like the car was down on power. I let off the gas to pull over and it immediately came to stop. Brakes were pretty much locked up and hot.....smoking hot.
Shortly after purchasing the car 5 or so years ago I replaced the calipers, pads, rotors, soft lines, and ......... a leaking master cylinder.
Hmmmm, leaking master? Must be a bad booster now, right? That's what I thought too so I replaced the booster and pushed the caliper pistons fully in. Wheels spun freely with no drag until the car was running and the pedal was pumped a few times, now they're back to dragging badly. Not as bad as before, but still pretty bad.
There is play at the clevis so it's not that. What else could be going on here? What should I be at looking at next?
I make a living wrenching on bicycles and have maintained/built many motorcycles over the years but to be honest I find cars a little intimidating so any help is greatly appreciated.
Oh, and the car in question is a 94 Honda Del Sol VTEC.
Are all 4 brakes dragging, just fronts, just rears or 1 front/1 rear?
Can't say for sure, but I can suggest further diagnostics.
If you can Jack it up immediately after its dragging, crack the front bleeder screws and see if you get a spurt of pressure release. If yes, something is causing it to not release normally. If you replaced booster and master separately, I'd be looking at the interface there.
What technique did you use when pushing the caliper pistons back? Bleeder open or pushing back to the master?
What does the master cylinder brake fluid look like? I have experienced fluid contaminated by oil based products causing brake lock up.
Hoses can swell internally, increasing pedal pressure a bit but also restricting a drop in pressure when you take you foot off the pedal.
In reply to matthewmcl :
Bleeder closed, pushed back to master
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
So if I understand correctly.... a dribble is ok, spurt bad?
Deltabox said:
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
So if I understand correctly.... a dribble is ok, spurt bad?
Correct.
Also, I 100% recommend opening bleeder screws before pushing caliper pistons in. Get that old fluid out of the system, and don't risk pushing contamination / corrosion upstream into the ABS module. Fluid is cheapest component in the system. And arguably the most important. Should be changed every 2-3 years.
No MasterCylinder free play?
