Here's the situation.

Rock hard pedal. Drive for 20+ minutes without touching the brakes. The first time I touch the brakes, I get an extremely long pedal. A couple of pumps and it returns to close the original feel...

What is the cause of the long pedal??!?? It's driving me crazy and frankly, making me nervous... You never need a reliable brake pedal on the interstate... :rolleyes:

Here's my setup.
-puny stock brakes
-less than a year old Master cylinder
-brand new rear calipers
-crap brake pads (but have had these previous to problem)
-SMC SS lines
-speedbleeders
-Ford Hi-Po brake fluid

Thanks for the help...

-Frustrated with brakes in VA

P.S. If a certain moderator with a red SE-R mentions ONE letter about NX brakes, I'll e-slap him. :D :p

Have you bled the brakes?

Originally posted by se-r sam
Have you bled the brakes?

Numerous times. BILLIONS of times. :rolleyes:

And remember, I *start* with a hard pedal. :confused:

P.S. If a certain moderator with a red SE-R mentions ONE letter about NX brakes, I'll e-slap him.

AD2....oh, sorry.

Glazed the crap pads perhaps?

Spend a few bucks at Advance and get new crap pads just to see if that's the problem.

Originally posted by MaddMatt
Spend a few bucks at Advance and get new crap pads just to see if that's the problem.

On my trouble-shooting list...

However, I have a hard pedal at the start of a highway trip... and then NOT using the brakes for 20 minutes at a time causes the long pedal... weirdness.

Vacuum leak? Do we have a vacuum booster? I dunno.

Master Cylinder. On my old 510 I could get a hard pedal but it would fade away. Try this. See if by putting soft gentle pressure if you can get the pedal to travel to the floor. I could on my 510 when the MC was bad.

Wilwoods:)
Not AD22

Replaced master cylinder with new Nissan unit last year.

The test for the brake booster in the Haynes manual checks out. Is there another way to test it?

As someone who has used the Russell speed bleeders I believe they might be part of your problem. I've seen them leak just a wee bit especially when driven hard. Check your fluid level. I actually had to replace two of the last four speed bleeders I installed... one because it wouldn't bleed and the other because it leaked out the nipple.

Steve

Yep. I'd say lose those speed bleeders and your problems will be solved.

I vote "me too" on the speed bleeders. :D I've heard of people having problems with them over the years, which is why I've never used them. Can't remember exactly what problems they had, though. I just remember "speed bleeders .... problems ... brakes not working right" and thinking that any problem related to functionality of brakes is not good. ;)

Heh heh, Steve said, "leaked out the nipple."

Hmmm.... I had sort of come to that conclusion that the speedbleeders could be causing some of my issues... I'll experiment. Thanks for backing me up...

I have a weird problem that started after I installed speed bleeders. Every time I make a hard right turn or a series of slaloms my pedal gets a little soft. Anyone ever heard of this happening? I think one of the bleeders may be causing this problem somehow. I see a little fluid on the nipples but I don't think its enough to be significant

Tim