no brake pedal after changing caliper | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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no brake pedal after changing caliper

Joined
December 30, 2009
Messages
20
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City, State
dayton ky
Year, Model & Trim Level
1994 xlt
had to change front pass. caliper and now i cant get any brake pressure in my pedal. i bled the brakes with the engine running starting at back passenger then back driver then front pass and front driver.that didn't work so i did it all again without the engine running and the pedal felt great till i started the motor and it went to the floor again. what else can i do? please help with detail.. thanks
 



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Turn the engine off and re-bleed em from the right rear, left rear, right front, left front..
 






had to change front pass. caliper and now i cant get any brake pressure in my pedal. i bled the brakes with the engine running starting at back passenger then back driver then front pass and front driver.that didn't work so i did it all again without the engine running and the pedal felt great till i started the motor and it went to the floor again. what else can i do? please help with detail.. thanks

Are you sure the master cylinder or brake booster didn't crap out on ya? I'm just giving ideas here.

Or if you have rust underneath at all do you have a bad brake line?

I had one rust through on an old 4runner.
 






If the pedal "felt great" with the engine running then you probably don't have a broken line. That being said its not bad to check. The reason why you have a difference pedal feel with the engine running as opposed to engine off is because of the booster (If you already know this then ignore the next couple sentences) With the engine running there is a vaccum created that assists braking. When you turn the engine off that vaccum is gone. You can feel that the first couple pushes on the pedal are similiar but it gets tougher and tougher the more you push on the pedal.

I would suspect that your problem is that you didn't get all of the air out of the line. As suggest above re-bleed the system, with the car off. Once you have done that drive it around. If the pedal is soggy, or sinks then you still have air in the lines. If it just seems like it takes a long time for the brakes to engage fully that is not an issue caused by air in the lines but more by the system being 17 years old.
 






Firestone told me one time when they did my brakes on my old honda accord (the first and last time, I was lazy at the time) that the aged brake fluid could be a suspect.

I was told that brake fluid isn't supposed to be extremely dark brown/ burnt looking.

I am assuming like all fluids, brake fluid breaks down after time/ years.

And when you were bleeding the brakes, were you watching your reservoir level like a hawk? Any amount of air sucked in would screw up your bleeding process
 






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