I broke my brakes...light pedal now

[nickruocco]

Ok, long story short, I was putting some "Disk brake quiet" on the back of the pads to stop the squeaking.

after jacking up the right front and putting it on a jack stand and removing the pads. I tried to loosen the wheel

on the left front. with the jack stand on the F.R. as low as it can go the wheel still did not have enough traction for me to

loosen the bolt before lifting. a friend said "hey, I will just get in and press the brakes , and then you can loosen the bolts"

well... it worked. but I forgot about the pads being out on the other side and this over extended one of the pistons and

put a nice puddle of fluid below that wheel. I got the piston back and pads back in and topped up the fluid but now I have

very little or no brakes and the pump turns on after 4 pumps of the brakes and still does not get hard.

using upgraded Willwoods 3 piston fronts

don't be too harsh, I know I screwed up, I just want to get it up and running again...

thanks guys!

Edited September 19, 2007 by nickruocco

[andydclements]

Have you bled the brakes fully after this incident?

You don't say you have, so i'd guess you have lots of air in the caliper where the piston over-extended.

Try bleeding it, once no air comes out for the fluid equivalent of 5-10 cm of clear plastic pipe, you can tighten the bleed screw again and see if you have a pedal. If it took you a while to get the piston back in, it may be that you lost so much fluid it ran low in the resevoir, and you'll need to bleed all 4, and to ensure you get enough through the back, bleed it so that you have at least 1/2 litre of fluid out of one rear before getting 1/4 litre out of the other. That way you've defineitely moved all old fluid (and air) out.

Andy

Edited September 19, 2007 by andydclements

[Jonathan]

Ah piston pop - had this happen on the elise whilst trying to bleed it, the wood fell out inbetween the pistons and 'pop' one of them flew across the garage hehe. You should be able to 'thoroughly' clean them up in hydraulic fluid and re-assemble them without a problem - push the piston back in and then fully re-bleed.

A little trick I used was to crack the bleed nipples open slightly and leave it over night - the Elise actually traps air in the little AP calipers and this might be your problem, the air then slowly finds its way out - the next day I tightened them up and they were fine.

Remember the slightest air / dirt in the system will cause a slack pedal.

[Guest Troy Halliday]

Had a major job bleeding the brake son the Lotus Carlton. Turned out to be the air was traped in the rear caliper. I had to bush the rear calipers pistons back in whilst I opened the bleed valve a tricky job but did the trick.

[nickruocco]

Thank you guys for the help. I bled the entire system today with the help of this article

from Lotusespritworld.com

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/EGuides/EM...dingBrakes.html

after I bled the front wheels which both had alot of air and bubbles in the pedal was back to normal but

I continued and did the back wheels and bled the master cylinder as well.

whoever filled it last def overfilled it alot. both reservoirs were over filled.

took it for a test drive. everything was good and the brakes stopped squeaking with the "Disk Brake Quiet" on the

back of the pads.

thanks again for the help!

-Nick

[Artie]

Well, you didn't break anything and learned a valuable lesson! We've all made silly mistakes before! Glad you got it fixed.

Artie

[andydclements]

Yo've probably done yourself a favour, the fluid is newer in the lines now, so less water absorbed , so better brakes.