Figured I would post this for any owners who may run into this problem...
About a month back I had my car worked on by a reputable dealer and they did great work. I took it in for a timing belt and water pump change, and they also tested my brake fluid and said it was worn out and had to be replaced - no problem. Only bought it a year ago so it seems the previous owner didn't stay on it up (which isn't uncommon).
They got all of this fixed for a good price and I was a very happy man.
Paid, picked the car up, drove great. I was told to make sure to activate the ABS since all the fluid had been changed so instead of paying the dealer to do it I would just drive out in a rainstorm and do it. No problem - ABS activated just fine, no issues.
Then I drove to work the next day. On the way home I hit the brakes to slow down and I felt the car slightly pull to the right. Strange... went home and checked the rotor temps with my trusty IR thermometer.
Sure enough:
FL: 144 deg F
FR: 140 deg F
RL: 75 deg F
RR: 111 deg F
Hhmm... seems one of my brakes wasn't working correctly.
I wasn't in a position where I could go back to the dealer because they were pretty far away and I had to go on vacation. Even though they offered to fix it for free, I decided to leave it with my buddy who I trust to work on anything with 4 wheels. Just more convenient with me going on vacation.
The car had these symptoms:
1) Slight pull to the right so we knew there was more brake force on the right side.
2) Low rotor temps on one side, but on the back. This made sense since the steering wheel did not pull when braking, just the whole car did
3) Just stopping with the e-brake did not cause a pull so we knew the piston wasn't seized and neither were the slide pins
4) No abnormal pedal feel
5) ABS activated VERY quickly almost as if there was far too much brake pressure going to the front than there should have been.
6) Rear brakes (specifically the left rear) bled fine (no air bubbles, constant stream) but fluid pressure was extremely low...
7) If you disconnected the entire brake hose on the rear to replace it and tried to get fluid out of the hard line itself with the pedal it was impossible. If you connected the hose you were able to the fluid to VERY SLOWLY come out of the bleeder.
8) Overall to me it felt like there was either a crap ton of air in the system after the ABS activated, or the left rear hose itself was internally collapsed and had to be replaced. But since there was still no fluid coming out o the hard line we figured it just needed a thorough bleeding.
While I was gone my buddy did the following to fix it:
1) Replaced all brake hoses, all 4 corners (so he knew he wasn't working with any hose issues).
2) Gravity bled all 4 corners - we tried vacuum bleeding and manual bleeding and it wasn't cutting it. He had to let it sit with the bleeders open for about 2 hours on each corner to get the fronts to bleed right.
3) When he moved on to the rear it took another 2 hours and a crap ton of air was very visible in the line only on the left rear - yep, that was the issue. This was interesting since the rear left had bled okay but with very little pressure.
3) He made a tool to bleed the ABS but it pumped clean fluid and had no issues so it probably wasn't needed. Nice to do it though.
Finally he drove it and sure enough its all systems go! Not pulling to any side and I'm glad to have my car back!
With a panic stop from 65mph down to 0 the car barely blips the ABS right as it comes to a complete stop, perfect operation.
Not sure if anyone had run into this. I know I've seen another thread where someone complained it took them bottles and bottles of brake fluid to get all the air out of their system. I've replaced brake fluid on a couple of cars and none of them have act up like this.
I was also surprised to see that vacuum bleeding didn't seem to get the air out - gravity bleeding works much better for this car in my limited experience with it.
About a month back I had my car worked on by a reputable dealer and they did great work. I took it in for a timing belt and water pump change, and they also tested my brake fluid and said it was worn out and had to be replaced - no problem. Only bought it a year ago so it seems the previous owner didn't stay on it up (which isn't uncommon).
They got all of this fixed for a good price and I was a very happy man.
Paid, picked the car up, drove great. I was told to make sure to activate the ABS since all the fluid had been changed so instead of paying the dealer to do it I would just drive out in a rainstorm and do it. No problem - ABS activated just fine, no issues.
Then I drove to work the next day. On the way home I hit the brakes to slow down and I felt the car slightly pull to the right. Strange... went home and checked the rotor temps with my trusty IR thermometer.
Sure enough:
FL: 144 deg F
FR: 140 deg F
RL: 75 deg F
RR: 111 deg F
Hhmm... seems one of my brakes wasn't working correctly.
I wasn't in a position where I could go back to the dealer because they were pretty far away and I had to go on vacation. Even though they offered to fix it for free, I decided to leave it with my buddy who I trust to work on anything with 4 wheels. Just more convenient with me going on vacation.
The car had these symptoms:
1) Slight pull to the right so we knew there was more brake force on the right side.
2) Low rotor temps on one side, but on the back. This made sense since the steering wheel did not pull when braking, just the whole car did
3) Just stopping with the e-brake did not cause a pull so we knew the piston wasn't seized and neither were the slide pins
4) No abnormal pedal feel
5) ABS activated VERY quickly almost as if there was far too much brake pressure going to the front than there should have been.
6) Rear brakes (specifically the left rear) bled fine (no air bubbles, constant stream) but fluid pressure was extremely low...
7) If you disconnected the entire brake hose on the rear to replace it and tried to get fluid out of the hard line itself with the pedal it was impossible. If you connected the hose you were able to the fluid to VERY SLOWLY come out of the bleeder.
8) Overall to me it felt like there was either a crap ton of air in the system after the ABS activated, or the left rear hose itself was internally collapsed and had to be replaced. But since there was still no fluid coming out o the hard line we figured it just needed a thorough bleeding.
While I was gone my buddy did the following to fix it:
1) Replaced all brake hoses, all 4 corners (so he knew he wasn't working with any hose issues).
2) Gravity bled all 4 corners - we tried vacuum bleeding and manual bleeding and it wasn't cutting it. He had to let it sit with the bleeders open for about 2 hours on each corner to get the fronts to bleed right.
3) When he moved on to the rear it took another 2 hours and a crap ton of air was very visible in the line only on the left rear - yep, that was the issue. This was interesting since the rear left had bled okay but with very little pressure.
3) He made a tool to bleed the ABS but it pumped clean fluid and had no issues so it probably wasn't needed. Nice to do it though.
Finally he drove it and sure enough its all systems go! Not pulling to any side and I'm glad to have my car back!
With a panic stop from 65mph down to 0 the car barely blips the ABS right as it comes to a complete stop, perfect operation.
Not sure if anyone had run into this. I know I've seen another thread where someone complained it took them bottles and bottles of brake fluid to get all the air out of their system. I've replaced brake fluid on a couple of cars and none of them have act up like this.
I was also surprised to see that vacuum bleeding didn't seem to get the air out - gravity bleeding works much better for this car in my limited experience with it.
Maybe everyone knows this but I didn't.
