No pressure in brakes

Hey everybody. New here. I have been planning on joining but after what happened today I had to do it asap haha. Maybe someone can help me out. I'm pretty competent working on machines and technical stuff but I only recently started working on my car.

I needed brake pads. STS quoted me 170 for parts and labor so I sad forget it. I watched a couple youtube videos on how to change pads and did some reading and it looked simple. I got ceramic pads from peb boys for 50 bucks. Once I had the new pads in place I had to fit the caliper over the new (thicker) pads. I read that a good way to do this is used a C clamp to press the piston in and fit it over. Ok, that worked, and I put everything back together. When I applied pressure to my brake pedal, it went all the way down to the floor making a sound like squeezing air out of a beach ball. "pffffffftttt" kind of. Like there was no pressure.

I decided to check my brake fluid. I can't really tell how high it is but I did notice the container is covered in it, which aint right. I'm guessing when I C-clamped the piston, it forced fluid up and out, and now I dont have enough fluid and I just need more.

Does this sound right, or is it more serious?
any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

When you pushed the piston back in, you forced the fluid back into the master cylinder, which is why it overflowed. I usually open the bleeder screw on the caliper and force the excess fluid into another container. Overflowing the reservoir isn't a big deal, it just makes a mess (and the fluid eats paint).

Did you try gently pumping the pedal a few times (don't go to the floor or you may damage the seals in the master cylinder)? If you pushed the piston back in all the way, you have to pump the pedal a few times to push the piston out until it contacts the pads. If your pedal pressure doesn't return after a few pumps, you probably have a leak somewhere.

The edit function isn't working for me right now, so I'll make another post.

If your pedal does return after a few pumps, take a peek in the master cylinder to make sure you didn't lose too much fluid when you overflowed it. There should be a min/max line.

Also, the "pffffftttt" noise was probably the brake booster using its stored vacuum.

What year, make, and model car do you have?

It's a 2003 Nissan Altima and it turns out the problem was that I am an idiot. I pressed the brake pedal down all the way and I thought it felt weird. Turns out it only felt weird because I guess I never pushed the brake in all the way (car is brand new to me). I tested the brakes by stepping on em and giving it a little gas in drive and they passed that test. So then I took it for a drive and the brakes felt much better than my old breaks and they work fine!

I even went and bought a bottle of brake fluid but found that it was already properly filled. I guess the last person did is sloppily and got some on the lid and surrounding area.

Thanks fo the post.

I think what vgames33 is what you experienced. After compressing the calipers, you need to pump the brake pedal once everything is put back together to get the piston extended so the pads make contact with the rotor. One push on the brake pedal will not do this, hence the soft pedal. Your subsequent push probably did, hence the working brakes.

The fluid on the line is probably due to some being forced out the master cylinder when you compressed the calipers to change the pads.

-Rod