Blue Beauty from Malaysia

[prelude91]

If there were no issues with the brakes being spongey before fitting the new discs and pads, then its probably more to do with air still in the system, than other items now being at fault. if there are still air bubbles appearing out of the top of the fluid reservoir when you pump/ bleed the brakes, then there's your answer

[wurlycorner]

If the spongyness has only appeared after changing the pads, I'd say it's probably less likely to be master cylinder failure, than just the new pads/discs bedding in, or the new pads being rubbish.

They were OEM discs from what I saw so they should be fine, what make were the pads?

When it comes to bleeding the brakes, I have found it takes ages of bleeding on preludes to get the spongyness out of the pedal in comparison to other cars, don't know why. Persevere and you get there in the end. And yes, there are one man bleeding kits available

As for the master cylinder, there are 2 sizes fitted to 4th gens. If your car has ABS, it already has the larger one. If your lude doesn't have ABS, you could fit the larger master cylinder from an ABS lude as an upgrade. Newkid has a used one for sale at the moment off the lude he's breaking.

[simonc]

Thanks Iain. I'll talk to Azhar tomorrow about this. I'll also find out from Newkid about his cylinder. Ta so much.

[simonc]

Iain, sorry, the pads are Bendix.

[wurlycorner]

Bendix should be ok.

It's possible the new pads are sticking slightly in the pad carrier as well - I find the edges of pads tend to need to be filed down these days before fitting, because of crap manufacturing quality meaning they come with high spots instead of flat edges
Your guy should know how tight they were when he fitted them though and whether they're ok or not.

[simonc]

Hi Iain, well actually things got progressively worse throughout most of yesterday. I tell you, by late afternoon the brakes were bordering on useless. Even if I put in gear I was stamping on the pedal to keep the car from moving forward. Anyway, I rang Azhar and told him and he came round late last evening, took off the cylinder and pump and is going to get me a new one today. He says the pads are fine, actually fit rather well, the fluid level is the same as it was Sunday so he thinks it's definitely the pump.
Luckily I've got the Del Sol so that's my runabout for today and hopefully he'll be able to get the pump today and come round this evening and get it sorted.
These brakes are driving me nuts.

[honda-hardy]

you need one of these.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/36035424 ... =95&ff19=0

perfect for bleeding brakes

[simonc]

Thanks for that. I'll have a mooch around and see if I can get one of those over here.

[wurlycorner]

If they're that bad, there must be something more serious that's wrong!


Am I remembering rightly some others on here saying they've had the seals on the master cylinder turn inside out if it isn't bled in a certain way?

[simonc]

Morning all, actually Iain I got a call from Azhar last night and he told me we may need a "brake proportioning valve". I have no idea what that is ( I'll Google it later on this morning) and even worse, no idea if I can get one here.
Can I float this out there and ask, do I need a Series 4 brake proportioning valve or is it something I can filtch from say a Civic, Accord or something like that?
Your advice is always welcome, thank you, Simon.