low brake pedal!

Hi guys! my friend brought me his 92 corolla to have the brakes checked! he was complaining of a low brake pedal. In other words, the pedal needed to be applied all the way in order for the car to stop! I bled all four tires but the problem is still there! there are no leaks and the pads/shoes/rotors/drums are not worn out! Could this be a problem related to the master brake cylinder or something else? Any help wold be appreciated!

ok. so i replaced the master cilynder but the problem is still there. could the booster be the problem? again, no leaks at hoses/pistons/ cilynder. mc is from th junk yard! he couldnt come up with $95 at that time!

my truck did that on my chevy i would bleed all the brakes til they ran clean, went through lots of dot3. so i said screw it because it would still stop when the brake was to the floor. eventually the brake pressure came back to normal so i would say just wait.

Are you sure the rear drum adjustment is good? You know with this set up, it is adjusted by the parking brake lever, not "autmatically" in reverse. :2cents:

well, the car is a manual so the parking brake is always in use! i did noticed though that the reare passenger tire was not really grabbing. I lifted the rear and used the parking brake but the tire was so easy to turn. nothing compared to the other side which was super hard! i guess im gonna have to try cleaning the shoes and checking all the mechanism inside! As far as the booster goes, if it was going out shouldn't i the brake pedal feel hard instead? just a thought! keep the comments coming guys! thanks!

well, the car is a manual so the parking brake is always in use! i did noticed though that the reare passenger tire was not really grabbing. I lifted the rear and used the parking brake but the tire was so easy to turn. nothing compared to the other side which was super hard! i guess im gonna have to try cleaning the shoes and checking all the mechanism inside! As far as the booster goes, if it was going out shouldn't i the brake pedal feel hard instead? just a thought! keep the comments coming guys! thanks!
slacken off the handbrake cable manually adjust the rear brakes till there is just friction on the drums then adjust the handbrake to operate at 2 clicks on ratchet

thanks! I will try that!

ok. im getting tired of this car! we have now replaced the booster and still the same! Im thinking that maybe the mc is not working properly either! it is from the junk yard! or maybe I did not bleed it correctly! anybody knows how to bleed it? I bled all four tires like 20 times already and still the brakes go all the way down! no air comes out when bled! any suggestions? how about that valve on the firewall? I checked the rear brakes and adjusted them. no leaks! I noticed that the front rotors are rusted . meaning the front calipers are not making pressure on the rotor! let me know what you think!

Hi I jsut picked up a 96 Geo Prizm and it has the same problem and i just replaced the master cylinder with a new one and i still have the problem did you ever fidure it out?? Thanks

Sometimes the front disk brake caliper bore will become rusted and thus frozen in the bore -- this will prevent the brakes from alpplying -- also if the bolts that connect the caliper to the spindle/strut are rusted they will also prevent proper brake application.

If the front rotors look like there is no contact with the pads, you may have frozen calipers -- Try removing the calipers and changing the pads -- to do this, you need to press the caliper piston down into the bore -- this should be easy enough to do with a c-clamp -- if the caliper is really frozen you may not even be able to do this, but check it out anyway. This is common on cars that have been sitting outside for long periods of time.

while bleeding the brakes the calipers seemed to move freely

Keep in mind that the caliper itself and the caliper piston must move freely to get any braking from the system. They both have a full range of motion that they must be able to accomodate.

If you haven't changed the pads or rotors, at least inspect them -- if either or both are worn beyond spec, the braking on those wheels will be deficient -- also look for differences left-to-right on the same axle -- uneven wear may indicate other issues like different sized tires, or poor inflation monitoring.

"Just picked up..." -- in this case, you should expect to change the pads and rotors since you have no idea what parts are there, if they were installed correctly, and how they may have been used/abused before you took possession of the vehicle -- ie, the pads should have several (usually very rusty) shims and shim clips behind them, if these are missing, especially on one side only, it will cause a brake balance problem.

The best way to approach the rear drums is to remove the drum and adjust the adjuster wheel until the drum slides on with a slight drag (bolt the drum on at this point with two nuts), then through the access hole add or remove clearance until the drum drags just a little, then back off a tick or two -- this should firm up the pedal if it was part of the issue.

Once brake fluid "obtains" moisture (water), it is essentially dead -- so if you suspect your problem is bleeder related, it wouldn't be a bad idea to totally fliush and refill the brake system with new fluid.

You could have bad brake drums Wheel Cylinders check that out it's like $10.00 each

They might need a good cleaning too so the brake fluid can flow smooth