Here we go again with brake problems

[Xavier]

Tom C.,

I had the same exact issues you had with my car originally; it was air in the lines, regardless of how much you bled (or thought you bled the system). Calling Wilwood multiple times will not help, as you will just throw money at the problem, they cannot look at your brakes lines and system. With no balance bar, with the worse calipers imaginable and with OEM pads the car should come to a screeching stop at some point. If you can put your finger or crayon on the rotor after even light braking without you or the crayon getting burnt (you can spit on it to, it should sizzle) you have no pad pressure getting to the rotor. Look at it this way - if you have no pad pressure, what are bigger calipers and pads going to do for the system? You have people running VW setups on older replicas with no issues stopping. You are not funning Formula 1, SS lines are nice, but you have no brakes period (or very little to the front) so what is the relevance of performance parts if you have no pressure?

As Tommy suggested in his last email - you can bleed to your hearts content, but if you have a high spot (and in my setup I have several maintenance loops) the air will get trapped in it and it is a pain to get it out. People, like me, will be in denial for a while and (like me) you will throw endless amount of money at it because we all thought because we bled it for hours on end and went through quarts of brake fluid - no air could possibly be trapped in the system. We were taught air would eventually come out - we were wrong. If you have no brakes, it is either due to leaking fluid (no pressure), mechanical setup (already discussed) or air within the lines. My pedal was firm too, so a spongy pedal is not the indefinite sign of air in the lines. Depending on MC setup and other variables, you can have what you feel is hard, and still have air within the system.

A person educated me on my problem as I would not be snapped out of denial, he took a power master bleeder to my system. Spent hours flushing fluid with it and went through a methodical process of bleeding, back and forth tapping the MC's and high points with a hammer (light tap). Eventually the air came out, the brakes worked (my fonts were completely non-functional at the time and like your setup were and are state-of-the-art) and the braking was incredible. The pedal feel only slightly changed, but obvious performance in the braking was enhanced and is great.

Looking at my system I made a few errors in the car and setting up the brake system;
- Safety loops are cool, I like them, I do not regret having them - but they hold air at the top and are a ***** to get out!
- I did not know I needed to bench bleed the MC's. At the time, I did not even know what this meant. My MC's had a lot of air in them. It was just something I was never taught...
- Pushing the air through the system from the MC reservoir, in my experience, seems to be much more successful then the traditional pedal approach, especially if working by yourself. The Power Master bleeder is the best damn tool investment I have made in a while. This is also really nice because after making a modification, you can pump up the PSI and leave it sit on the system overnight. If it holds the PSI, you know (or are fairly confident) you have no leaks.
- The biggest problem was my own arrogance; when everything pointed to air, I simply judged it as "impossible" because of the amount of fluid I pushed through the system. I have talked to mechanics since then that on one car it took less than a quart, but on another it took gallons. There is no "volume" or pedal feel indication you have air in the lines. If your brakes are not working its one of three things mentioned early on, its a process of elimination - and if you eliminated leaks, pedal throw and MCs, it only leaves you with one thing - air.

I hope this helps you, as it helped me.