I put stainless lines and speed bleeders on my rears when I replaced the pads/rotors, but after bleeding them fully (the blue fluid I replaced the old gold with bled through,) the brakes are still very spongey. Think it's likely air managed to make its way into the front brake lines? I never saw the reservoir get below MIN (though I need to look at it in better light, it took a lot of fluid before I could see any change in the level of fluid when I left the screen in.)

I had the hardest time getting the rotors off too. I think they're original with 110k miles and 6 New England winters on them. The puller I used was a beast (built for disassembling steam turbines, but oddly the point on the screw fit the detent in the hub perfectly,) and I actually crushed the back of one of the old rotors. I'd estimate I had at least 1000 lbs of pulling force on the rotor and was beating on it like a red headed step child with a brass mallet.
I'll post pics of the rotor just for kicks later.

 

Oh, and the spanner for my angle grinder fit the grooves in the rear caliper pistons almost perfectly. Made turning them pretty easy. One turned right in, the other was much stiffer and didn't want go in at all, had to put a lot of force pushing the piston in while rotating it. Just a suggestion to try for those of you with Angle grinders (Mine is a 4.5" Dewalt I believe.)

 

skrubol - does your car have a master cylinder bleeder? If so bleed it 1st and last to get rid of a spongy pedal.

 

A couple of thoughts . . .

Did you have the car level when you did the bleeding? One time I did my GTI by lifting one end at a time and ended up with air in the rear - best I could figure it was due to the fluid flowing to the front of the reservoir when I suctioned the old fluid out and apparently there was a bubble in the reservoir when I topped it off with new fluid. I only owned two jack stands at the time. I have since rectified that and now I always lift the whole car and keep it as level as possible.

Try Spin9K's suggestion first with the bleeder on the master cylinder, but you may have to go back and re-bleed the rears. I did stainless lines on the Miata I had before the RX-8 and ended up with air in the rear. I was using a pressure bleeder and could have sworn that I had all the air out, but on the first drive, the pedal was soft. I bled again and got air out of the rear. I guess working the brakes had moved the air to the caliper because it bubbled immediately when I started bleeding.

Hope that helps . . .

Funny this topic should pop up - I did the 6 and the Dakota this past weekend. ATE gold and Hawk HPS's for everyone . . . . .

 

I had the rear raised when I bled them. Bled the fronts tonight (just each corner raised as I did it,) and no appreciable change. These things aren't just soft, they're completely unresponsive until the pedal is half way to the floor. Not safe to drive outside the neighborhood.
I'll try bleeding all around next time I get back to the car (action packed Friday night in my future!)

 

so remember do bleeding in the correct order ... master cyl...rr...lr...rf...lf...master cyl. If you have one, believe me the MC is the key. Also the rear lines are long... so unless you change the color of the brake fluid and can see when you've really flushed old fluid out, bleed those rear ones more times than you'd think you need to to get all the old fluid and air bubbles that might be present back in the lines.

If you want, pm me and come over to my shop and I'll help you. I'm on the seacoast too.

 

Thanks a lot for the offer for help, if this weekend's work goes similarly to how this week's car week has gone.. I'll be taking you up on your offer. I did change the color of the fluid, and I was actually surprised at how quickly the blue fluid made it to the back. Maybe somehow some air got in there and pushed it along.

 

Well tonight the trouble continues. I was able to get the front pads and rotors off relatively easily. Pad wear is odd, passenger side the inner pad was down to the metal (replacing pads and rotors anyway,) outer was barely worn. Drivers side neither pad was worn much. Better yet, on the drivers side, one of the pins in the floating part of the caliper bracket is frozen in the bracket.
Anyone know if it's possible to get just this part without paying a ridiculous sum?
Thanks again.

 

In Australia no you cant. I dont believe there is an individual part # for it. I had the exact same problem and ended up getting it loose, but it was clearly no longer straight. I bought a second hand caliper for < $100. If you cant find the same side then the pins are interchangeable.

 

Piston is sticking, or a couple caliper pins are frozen... you have some problems there. may be better off buying a reman caliper than screwing around with them. They're not much at all, e.g., http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/de...e&apwidd2XBD48

 

Even if a guide pin is currently 'frozen' you can get it out with some effort. Pliers and try to rotate it as you pull it out. Once free clean/sand it and coat with copper grease prior to re-installation.

 

I worked pretty hard at extracting that pin. I haven't put heat on it yet, but I've definitely tried lock pliers and penetrating oil.
~$50 doesn't seem to bad to replace the caliper with a rebuilt unit (assuming it includes the bracket.)

 

Well, finally got the pin out. Took a little bit of coaxing (torch on the bracket, in a vise, lock pliers on the pin, liberal applications of WD40, trying not to catch too much on fire.)

Will replace the pins and lube it up and hope the calipers are OK (can get the pins local, would have to order caliper rebuild kit.)

 

^ I knew you would.

Can't you just steelwool the pins, lube them, and reuse? Did they somehow get bent?

 

The head of the one that was stuck is pretty mangled due to having to clamp lock pliers on them as hard as I could (and them still slipping off several times.)
The kit for both sides was only $20 I think at Advance, and it includes the little rubber gaskets that go on one of the pins on each side.

 

^ Copper grease, periodic inspections, and you'll not have that issue again. Yep, pins are a lot cheaper than a wholesale caliper replacement.

 

I changed just the front sets of pads today. i replaced factory pads with EBC yellow stuff performance pads. i'm having two issues. first the brake pedal feel is not as stiff as before. second i noticed that the rotorS dont rotate as freely as before. any advise on what i did wrong?

UPDATE: I didn't bleed the brakes correctly. I used the vacuum method to bleed but realized you still need to depress the brake pedal or not enough air comes through. So the soft pedal problem is solved I'm guessing the friction present with the rotor rotation is normal for new pads?

 

So i ordered some Hawk HPS pads on some recommendations from some friends. I received them yesterday in the mail and it appears they have some sort of clip on the back of them already. Does this mean I dont need to reuse the factory shims? Also, the pads came with a small pouch of anti rattle grease and I assume this should be enough to lube each pad. Also if anyone could be so kind, could someone photoshop or paint some arrows to where the lube should go? It would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

how are you liking the yellows? are they as bad for noise/dust as i am hearing?
there are so many mixed reviews i cant decide which brake pads to get anymore and might just end up getting oem and they need to be done asap. soo frustrating!!!

 

Hi. I have a question. When mounting caliper on bracket, should the piston be touching the brake pad?

Thanks,

Chad

 

If you are installing new pads you will likely need to compress the pistons back in. The rears spin in, they are kind of annoying. Make sure the reservoir is open and doesn't overflow,