Spongey brakes

Well i picked up my Jimny on saturday. At first it was pulling to the left while braking so a mate and I took the pistons out the calipers and gave them a good clean - everythings moving freely now. However the brakes aren't as powerful as they were. They need 'pumping up' to be properly, instantly, effective. I can push them to near the floor with very little braking force however after a couple of pumps they're great...drive a bit and back to needing pump. Its like theres a vaccum leak somewhere perhaps? Is this something anybody has heard of?

P.S. I'll put a thread up about the Jimny tomorrow or in the coming days...never stopped with work this week.

Mine do the exact same, ive not had good brakes in months!

new pads, discs, rear shoes, brake pipes the lot,

i did however find the the rear adjusters on the shoes were siezed, going to strip them down this weekend and try and sort them out,

open your bonnet and look over to the brake servo, you will see a black rubber pipe coming from the servo back to the top of the engine, this has a one way valve in it for the brake system, take the pipe of and blow from both ends to make sure its working properly.

I assume you bled them through after putting the pistons back?

On mine the main cause of spongey brakes were the rear shoes, the adjusters stick and you have to pump each time you brake to push the shoes out to the drums. I would not have thought it was a vacuum leak as this would make the brakes heavy, ie hard to push, not spongey

Martin

Admittedly we didn't bleed them no. Also we haven't looked at the rear brakes so thats something to check too. Okay then, bleeding brakes - do tell. :blush:

I must admit I am surprised that you managed to clean the pistons without bleeding the brakes, can I check that we have our terminology the same.

See the picture below.



The caliper sliders are numbered 3, whilst the pistons are item 7. The bits that usually stick are the sliders (3) which you don't have to bleed for.

Anyway, bleeding is straight forward. You need a brake spanner or a good 10mm open ended spanner. Go around the car starting with the rear passenger side. Undo the bleed nipple on the back of the brake and get someone to push the pedal to the floor and hold it there, tighten the nipple back up and get them to release the brakes. Its best to use a clear piece of tube from the nipple to a container, look for air bubbles in the fluid stream, repeat the process until no more bubbles can be seen then move on round. The drivers rear side drum does not have a bleed nipple.

Martin

:blush: Yeah I meant the sliders...moving swiftly on! Right so now for the rear shoes' adjusters then. Don't suppose there's a How To lying about?