Brake pedal feel.

[Unreal Summit]

I just put new rotors, calipers, pads on all 4 corners of my truck. The pedal feels hard after maybe an inch of travel. It used to feel alot smoother and soft (not mushy)  is this normal?  Yes I got all the air out of my brake lines.  Could this be a hydroboost related? 

[Haggar]

Unreal,

While it is possible the hydroboost magically died, when you were working on another completely separate part of the system, it could happen.  My guess is that probability is less than 1%.

 

The easiest way to prove this is: are they mushy with the engine off?  If they are, then it is air or trash in the brake lines.  (a small amount of air will feel a LOT less mushy without the booster.  The booster adds like 500%  to your application force.)

 

I am guessing you have the 4 wheel ABS, like I do.  It is VERY easy to trap some air in there and have issues with soft pedal.  When you pushed the pistons back in for the new pads, did you relieve that fluid, or push it backwards into the master cylinder?   I used to push it back, but have in the last 10 years, quit doing that and relieved it.  This keeps from pushing trash into the brake combination valve and into the abs system.

 

You may have to play some games with the actual bleeding procedure you are using, and you may want to force the abs to operate a bit.  (if you have a bi-directional scan tool, there is a brake bleed procedure) or you can find a gravel parking lot and force it to operate and bleed it.   (I don't know if this abs is like the GM's where you can manually open the abs valves.) 

 

GL  HTH

Hag

[Unreal Summit]

I pushed it back into the master cylinder.  I am glad you mentioned that! The pedal feels kinda soft with truck off. So maybe I need to try bleeding them again.  

[Haggar]

Yeah give it a shot again....   One of my suburbasauruses drove me nuts!!!!   It took like 3 weeks until I found the gravel road trick, but I had to have someone with me and bleed them right then too....  total PITA!  But worth it.  I like rock solid brakes!

 

Good luck!

 

Hag

[Unreal Summit]

I will for sure.  The breaks work awesome but I dont like for the pedal to feel ify at all! Thanks for your help! I appreciate it. 

[2000Ram2500]

I actually have had a master cylinder fail on me while doing a full brake job. Granted that was on a 95 F150.. I still dont know what happened we changed all the brakes. New rotors new pads new shoes and drums on the rear. Calipers and wheel cylinders we left alone the were fine. Get the tires back on and the truck on the ground and nothing. Pedal went to the floor. Possibly because we just used a pair of channel locks and squeezed the calipers down. Didnt relieve it as mentioned by @Haggar so that must've done it. Master cylinder was gone.Bench bled a new one put it all back together and it worked beautifully for the last 6 years i had the truck.

[Haggar]

I too have had a master cylinder seem to bite the bullet during a brake overhaul..... (was it semi-bad before the job and didn't live through bleeding?  Did i do something by pushing the fluid backwards???)   I don't know...  it is frustrating though sometimes!!!!!  the cylinders SHOULD push back without damaging the master/ABS etc....at rest the fluid reservoir should be in direct communication with the wheel cylinder piston.  (no valves closed, no seals in the way)    It has definitely added to my grey hair!!

 

Hag

[Mopar1973Man]

I've got to ask the question what is the color of the brake fluid? 

[Unreal Summit]

Surprisingly it's pretty clean looking.  I haven't had the truck to long so I am not sure how long it's been in their or when it was changed last.  Time to flush it all out and the power steering too.   I bled the brakes last night and it seemed to help. Then I just held them down for a bit and bled them again. Done good after that. Might just be in my head.