Brakes spongy.. Will they stiffen?
 

I just took off my SS lines and put on the OEM ones.

Bled the brakes.. No air bubbles, bled a second time and made sure there are no air bubbles. Bled in the LF, RF, RR, LR pattern... Car stops just fine, but pedal is much spongier than before... Will this stiffen up or do I need to re-bleed even though there were no air bubbles.

What do you guys think... Maybe the fluid needs to settle in?? Or theres some gunk of my rotors that needs to be burned off once heated...

Let me know your opinions...

-Ed

Sounds like you may have gotten some air in the master cylinder by allowing the fluid in the reservoir to go too low when you were changing the lines or bleeding the calipers. If you did, you need to activate the ABS a couple-few times to get the air out. You can do this by finding a low grip surface so you can activate the ABS, even one wheel, on braking (I did this in some sandy area at the end of my street at only about 10 MPH, so not really necessary to go fast). Then bleed once again.

Brakes will not stiffen on their own. I agree with Richard - perform the brake bleeding procedure again making sure that the reservoir remains close to full. I top mine up after working on each wheel and go around two times just to make sure it's done well. I use close to a liter of fluid during a thorough flush and bleed.

Then go buy your helper a beer ... or two ... or three :).

But you must activate the ABS a few times to get the air out of the master cylinder. Bleeding alone will not do this and will not get rid of the sponginess.

Interesting, I've never done this before. Perhaps I've never let air into the system?

If you did you would know for sure, as I did ;) . I should have given credit to davepk for the solution.

How does activating ABS release the air bubbles trapped?? Just curious...

I'm guessing I can't just keep bleeding it over and over to make sure things are perfect until all fluid is flushed but I have to activate ABS a few times...

-Ed

I really don't understand the details. Maybe the air gets trapped in the ABS modulator unit, not the master cylinder? But I know that you have to activate ABS to get rid of it. Happened to me twice... once when I let the fluid go too low when bleeding, and once when I replaced the ABS modulator unit. Come to think of it, the air probably gets trapped in the ABS modulator unit because I didn't let fluid go low in the reservoir when I replaced the unit.

Thanks, I appreciate all your help...

It's great having great users with so much knowledge on the boards...

I'll let you know how things go... :thumbup:

-Ed

:iagree: COMPLETELY!! This post saved me a huge :confused: headache tonight/early early this morning. My first brake fluid change could've been a lot worse :rolleyes: , so thanks a million!