Problem bleeding brakes
dksob81
05-18-2009, 08:30 PM
I am working on a 01 Ford Focus the customer replaced his own brakes and after that he didn't have a brake pedal so he tried to bleed the brakes and broke the bleeders so replaced the calipers and 1 brake hose (for whatever reason) and still couldn't get the pedal hard so he replaced the Master Cylinder and still couldn't get a pedal so he brought it to us. So after attempting to bleed the brakes all around (there was no way the rear bleeders were going to come out so we replaced Wheel Cylinders, Lines from Wheel Cylinder to hose on rear, Shoes, Spring kit and Drums along with the E-brake cable because the parking brakes were hung up and made it very difficult to get the drums off. Well anyways after replacing all that we pressure bled the system, got all new fluid thoughout the system and all air out - still no pedal, the attempted to manually bleed the system well after about 2 pedals I get no fluid out of the RR and LF wheels and it won't even gravity bleed, but if you wait a while and try to gravity bleed it will start bleeding, but pedal still goes all the way to the floor. and attempt to manual bleed and same thing. We disconnected the lines and plugged them to bleed the Master Cylinder on the vehicle and the pedal gets hard, so we connect eveything up and still no go, thursday we spent about 3 hours and about 5qts or brakes fluid gravity bleeding each wheel (advice of local ford dealer) and still not go. Now our Brake Spec books says it needs to be hooked to a computer to bleed through ABS pump (dealer says no on this vehicle) and our Scantool doesn't have the BRAKE BLEED option for this year (02 or 03 does but not 01). I am at a loss - I have no idea what else to do. Any sugestions?
dksob81
05-19-2009, 02:37 PM
It's Fixed!
Whenever he put the front brakes on he put the clips (that hold the outside pad to the caliper) on incorrectly so instead of it holding the pad to the caliper ti would push the pad away from the caliper which would inturn push the piston back into the caliper so essentially the fluid that was used to push the piston out was being pushed back into the Master Cylinder and not doing anything with the pedal. I installed the clips the correct way, Power Flushed the system and the brakes work great.
I know this is kinda confusing I will try to explain how they were incorrectly installed but you will probably have to see the brake setup to see where he made the mistake. The open ends of the clip wraps around the outside of the caliper then connects to the brake pad, whereas he had it the oposite way - the open end was wrapped around and connect to the pad on the inside which was causing it to act as a spring and push the pad out away from the caliper (when it should be holding it tight against the caliper) and the clip is suppose to hook under the caliper bracket/steering knuckle and it was actually facing down and not doing anything. We would have probably noticed this but never actually removed the front wheels, all we did to the front was bleed the brakes (which doesn't require removal of the wheel).
Whenever he put the front brakes on he put the clips (that hold the outside pad to the caliper) on incorrectly so instead of it holding the pad to the caliper ti would push the pad away from the caliper which would inturn push the piston back into the caliper so essentially the fluid that was used to push the piston out was being pushed back into the Master Cylinder and not doing anything with the pedal. I installed the clips the correct way, Power Flushed the system and the brakes work great.
I know this is kinda confusing I will try to explain how they were incorrectly installed but you will probably have to see the brake setup to see where he made the mistake. The open ends of the clip wraps around the outside of the caliper then connects to the brake pad, whereas he had it the oposite way - the open end was wrapped around and connect to the pad on the inside which was causing it to act as a spring and push the pad out away from the caliper (when it should be holding it tight against the caliper) and the clip is suppose to hook under the caliper bracket/steering knuckle and it was actually facing down and not doing anything. We would have probably noticed this but never actually removed the front wheels, all we did to the front was bleed the brakes (which doesn't require removal of the wheel).
Davescort97
05-21-2009, 02:27 AM
The customer should have brought it to you in the first place. He threw a great deal of expensive parts at it which probably would never have been needed. I've almost quit taking on projects that have been cobbed up by an owner. Usually they make very expensive mistakes which is evident by your thread. I know I'm cynical but have had some very bad experiences, then they add insult to injury by complaining about how much it is going to cost. Good for you for finding the solution. You're a good tech. I'll cataloge this in my mind in case I run into a similar occurence.
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