Issue Bleeding Brakes after Replacing Calipers

[Jim]

Hello! I’m looking for some help on an issue I’m having while bleeding brakes on my 2000 Dodge Neon.

Today I was doing a tire rotation and noticed my brake pads were pretty well worn down and I was getting a bulge in one of my brake hoses, so I decided to order a new set a pads, rotors and replacement brake hose. Well while attempting to remove the bleeder screw it snapped off so I ordered two replacement calipers since I’ve read they should be replaced together to maintain even braking.

I get everything put back together and remove both of the bleeder screws to gravity bleed the system, once I notice a steady stream of brake fluid coming out of the bleeder hole I put the screws back in and have a friend work the brake petal inside the car while I operate the bleeder screw outside the car. I started with the passenger wheel and moved to the driver wheel for this process. After having him press and hold the brake petal and seeing a nice steady shot of brake fluid come spraying out when I loosed the bleeder I figured I was good, so I put it back together and started it up only to notice the car had a very soft brake petal.

The brake petal feels pretty normal with the engine off, but get soft if the engine is on. Also after I noticed this issue I had my friend pump the brake petal a little while I looked at the calipers and it doesn’t seem like its getting a whole lot of movement out of the caliper piston but its tough to say for sure because of limited lighting towards the end of the day.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to correct this or know of anything that I may be missing here?

Thanks,

-Jim

Topic

[Paul]

Did you pump the brake pedal several times to move the piston to its “working” distance? The piston travel can be relatively short, so it’s easy to miss.

Did you bed/break-in the pads? The new rotors need a layer of the friction material to function well. The braking power is weak until this layer is deposited. The last time I replaced the pads and rotors on , and the first 10 miles were white knuckle driving. It took ~100 miles until the braking felt normal.

[Jim]

I did pump the pedal several times prior to each round of bleeding, and even when the car running I pumped the pedal several times but it just felt very soft and spongy to the point where it really made me question if they were working properly. I’m used to experiencing a little different brake reaction with new pads and rotors but this just felt like something different so I did not take the car anywhere yet.

It almost feels like there’s air in the line but I just couldn’t figure out where it could be trapped at because it looks pretty normal during bleeding. This vehicle doesn’t have ABS so it should be pretty simple to bleed. The master cylinder never dropped below the min line at any time during the bleeding process either so I was only ever working at each front wheel.

[Pierre]

Have you accidently switched sides of the calipers?
Is the bleeder valve on the top or bottom?
Are they on the bottom there is still a lot of air trapped in the caliper above the bleedervalve.

If they are on the wrong side its acctually a common mistake made by almost everyone, including me once…

[Donald]

Did you use a piece of see through hose that fits around the nipple of the caliper bleeder snug? If not you screwed up and need to get one now. After you get one from say home depot or wherever take said hose but to length of 15 inchs or there abouts and put into empty container filled half way with brake fluid. Make sure the hose is submerged under the brake fluid and bleed from right rear to left rear to front right to left right. If the vehicle is left hand drive. If it is right hand drive bleed from left rear to right rear to front left to front right. Make sure no more bubbles form when brake pedal is pressed and you open the bleeder. So in short. Bleed, bleed, bleed.

[Cameron]

+1 on Rattman’s comment.

Sloppy brake bleeding job and air remains in the system.

[Jim]

Alright thanks for the input guys! I tried bleeding the front again, still didn’t get a better feel in the pedal. I knew there had to be air in there somewhere so I said Lets just bleed the whole system, instead of the two front lines where I just serviced. I ended up snapping the bleeder screw off of the RR and noticed a small little leak on the LR wheel cylinder (which was also probably a contributor to major contributor to my pedal feel). I ended up replacing the shoes and hardware while I was in there. The brake hoses also had to be replaced because why should anything go easy right?

My friend loaned me his vacuum bleeder and after bleeding the whole system the pedal was restored to normal feeling and its back on the road!!!

Thanks for the hose submerged in fluid trick Rattman! It seems the principle behind that would prevent any air from being sucked back in if your just bleeding it with the buddy system. I’ll definitely have to remember that the next time I’m doing it that way.

Man what a PITA this simple project grew into. Oh well at least its back on the road braking safely.

[damien381]

I despise snapping off bleeder valves. I certainly feel your pain and congratulate you on getting the job completed without driving the car off a cliff.

[Author]

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