Have manual setup with Wilwood setup and single reservoir , brakes worked fine and then one day the pedal went right to floor? Air in all lines now, everything looks tight, could it be the reservoir ?
Visit our community sponsor
Have manual setup with Wilwood setup and single reservoir , brakes worked fine and then one day the pedal went right to floor? Air in all lines now, everything looks tight, could it be the reservoir ?
If the brakes were properly bled, and you had plenty of fluid in the reservoir, then AFAIK the only way air could get into the lines would be a leak somewhere. I seem to remember edwardb may have had an issue in his build where he had a bad master cylinder piston which I think resulted in a similar symptom, but I think he could easily see brake fluid leaking in his foot box. I'm sure he'll comment with more details.
You sure you don't see a leak anywhere?
Last edited by Alphamacaroon; 08-13-2020 at 11:17 PM.
Cheers,
--jim
Build 1: Gen III Type 65 Coupe, Gen II Coyote
So put in new front lines and no difference I tried doing front and rear by them selves both act the same. Lastly I tried running hose from reservoir and no suction ? Any clue ? Maybe the push rods
So many strange things here that it would make me think it might be best to get a professional to look at it. Only way to replace fluid with air is for there to be a leak, or for the air to have always been there in the first place. It could be a problem with the MC, but if that was the case then it’d be impossible to bleed them correctly in the first place, or you’d notice a leak. So it all comes back to improper bleeding or a leak.
If you remove the rubber boots from the MCs, do you see any fluid come out? That might be one way for a leak to “hide” for a while, but seems unlikely.
I’m not a braking system expert, but I can’t imagine any scenario where you’d have hard brakes one moment and soft brakes the next and the cause not to be immediately recognizable. I’d definitely have someone else who knows brakes take a look at it right away.
Last edited by Alphamacaroon; 08-16-2020 at 12:48 AM.
I did have a new Wilwood MC start a slow leak during my Coupe build after it was bled. Found a defective seal on the piston. Appeared be a defective mold of the o-ring. A $25 rebuild kit solved the problem. The bad seal was on the back of the piston. Not the front where the main pressure is held. So it never failed all the way to the floor.
Build 1: Mk3 Roadster #5125. Sold 11/08/2014. Build 2: Mk4 Roadster #7750. Sold 04/10/2017. Build Thread
Build 3: Mk4 Roadster 20th Anniversary #8674. Sold 09/07/2020. Build Thread and Video. Build 4: Gen 3 Type 65 Coupe #59. Gen 3 Coyote. Legal 03/04/2020. Build Thread and Video
Build 5: 35 Hot Rod Truck #138. LS3 and 4L65E auto. Rcvd 01/05/2021. Legal 04/20/2023. Build Thread. Sold 11/9/2023.
Update:
Yeah so found the issue, was damaged front brake lines, but dumbass me refilled it with power steering fluid! UGH, will need new M/C 's, any one have extra ?
While power steering fluid is certainly bad and the whole system will need to be flushed and cleaned, it’s still a non-compressible hydraulic fluid, so the brakes should have felt perfectly solid even with the wrong fluid (at least at low temperature). So it’s still really important that you find the root cause.
You say that you found damaged front brake lines— I assume that means a leak? Did you find fluid on the garage floor? Also, didn’t you say that the rear MC was also soft? Sounds like you’ve made some great progress and glad you found the steering fluid mistake before it became a major safety issue! But the possible culprit still doesn’t seem to match the symptoms you described earlier (unless you or I missed something in your description). I still think it’d be a good idea for someone else to double check everything.
Last edited by Alphamacaroon; 08-18-2020 at 10:09 AM.
It's been some months since I did that MC rebuild. So don't remember exactly. Put brake fluid on the piston, seals, and bore of the MC before assembly as I've always done with this kind of rebuild. Didn't encounter any issues. 1000+ miles on the build and brakes are working fine with no leaks.
Build 1: Mk3 Roadster #5125. Sold 11/08/2014. Build 2: Mk4 Roadster #7750. Sold 04/10/2017. Build Thread
Build 3: Mk4 Roadster 20th Anniversary #8674. Sold 09/07/2020. Build Thread and Video. Build 4: Gen 3 Type 65 Coupe #59. Gen 3 Coyote. Legal 03/04/2020. Build Thread and Video
Build 5: 35 Hot Rod Truck #138. LS3 and 4L65E auto. Rcvd 01/05/2021. Legal 04/20/2023. Build Thread. Sold 11/9/2023.