Curious problem with a p reg 1.8 mondeo, car has sat for 18 months, chucked it through an MOT as the body is rust free and I dont need it anymore, obviously after sitting for so long there were a few issues, front brake judder, rear brakes binding (seized cylinders) and no reserve on the handbrake.

So I put new discs and pads on it, swapped the rear cylinders, cleaned and greased the rear adjusters which work perfectly and bled the system right through with new brake fluid....

The issue is now that I have done that, there is still a huge amount of travel before the brakes actually work, when I get almost to the floor the brakes work great, but before that the pedal just goes straight down, any ideas as to what it could be? has been suggested that the servo has perished away causing the pressure to leak, could this be it? if so is it an easy repair or is it something else?

Any help much appreciated.

 

Shagged master cylinder?
Bled all the brakes?

 

as above

 

yeah bled all the brakes, started on drivers front, then passenger rear, then passenger front, then driver rear as per Haynes manual. They bled though lovely all clean fluid and no air whatso ever.
So Master cylinder? would that account for the 5/6ths pedal travel before any brake pressure?

 

Thought you bled them furthest away from the master cylinder first..

Anyway, if the master cylinder is shagged, it would account for the pedal travel.

Pretty sure there is a way to check if its fucked.

 

Is the pedal solid when it does work or spongy? If you hold your foot on the pedal does it sink to the floor?

 

It is solid when you get to the part where they actually work, and dont seem to drop, but there is soo little travel left its kind of hard to tell.

 

Honestly sounds like they need bleeding again, I've had the samething before.

 

I not only bled them twice, I also had the local MOT place bleed them, so they have been bled 3 times effectively, but it hasnt made any difference what so ever.

 

Did you pump the brake pedal so the rear pistons contact the rear pads before you tried the handbrake? If not this would give you the above symptoms too...

 

you say swapped the rear cylinders so it's drums on the rear ?
could be shoes need adjusting and you wound the handbrake cable up to get a decent H/B ?

 

Nope didnt do this, how can I rectify it now? Yes its rear drum, didnt have to reset the handbrake it seems to work great holding the car strongly on a steep hill on only 4 clicks, yet the travel in the brake pedal can only be described as dangerous.

 

Sorry I didn't read your original post properly! Ignore my last post, I was either drunk or tired... Or both

 

Had this on a punto. Was poorly adjusted rear shoes so the rear cylinders were filling up loads.

 

Did the rear drums have a lip on them if so remove that lip so you can get the shoes adjusted out more,
then fit the drums back on so the shoes just rub slightly

 

Not really, but I adjusted them right out before I bled the system, I could barely rotate the drum, the shoes are low though, so I could replace those to remove some travel, might look at changing the mastercylinder as well.

 

You could have flipped the M/C seals when pushing the pistons in the calipers back, in any case I defo would suspect the M/C!

Has it got any better after driving?

Really you should replace the rear shoes, it seems almost silly not to for what they cost, as you have serviced the rest of the braking system!

Handbrake should be self adjusting, although there should be an adjuster on the cable, but this never needs touching unless a new cable has been fitted etc, this works ok as it's seperate from the hydraulic system!

Martin

 

When you drive the car and put your foot on the brake does it pull to one side? Or if you jack the front up and put you foot on the brake slightly and try and spin the wheels by hand do they apply evenly to both sides? As your o/s/f is connected to the n/s/r, and n/s/f to the o/s/r. If either is applying little or no effort on the brakes, bleed that brake and the opposite rear one. If still no joy the seal is gone in the master cylinder. also if you struggle to get fluid out of the nipple, master cylinder has gone. You could try a vacuum type bleeder, this may also help to get rid of any air in the system.

Make sure the rear brakes are set up by completely loosening the handbrake cable and winding out the rear shoes so they rub the drums very slightly after giving the drums a few taps with a hammer

The brake pedal will not be perfect until the frond discs/pads are bedded in.

That's what I would do anyway

Dan

 

Clamp the brake flexi-hoses off (with molegrips or similar) one by one, press the brake pedal to determine which brake is at fault. When your brake pedal feels good you have found the problem corner.
If you clamp all 4 off and the pedal is still poor, master cylinder could be the problem.

 

Thanks guys, got a few things to try now, for the price of it I might as well swap for new shoes and a new M/C and go from there.

 

I was also going to suggest you try clamping the flexi hoses one at a time see if anything improves. If it doesn't then i'd be looking at the master cylinder.

 

Update!? Swapped the m,aster cylinder and the shoes today and a marked improvement!!, bled the system and took it out for a test, runs lovely and brakes perfectly,

Now, handbrake is self adjusting at the lever and has 9 clicks, only holds at 7, if it is self adjusting how can I get it to work like normal??

Also, when i got back from said test, I was reading that the handbrake was self adjusting and that you need to use it a few times to remove some of the slack, but whilst sitting there engaging and releasing the handbrake, the whole brake system locked up :S I had to release pressure at the bleed valves, the release the rear self adjuster to get the brakes to work normally, what has caused this so I dont get it again!!

Cheers.