The New Soft Brake Pedal Thread.

[some_cs_student]

GTR's this is never an issue though they don't seem to have a problem...

I disagree, there is a master cylinder stopper around that's around ~$80 or so, it looks like it will help with the initial soft pedal feel.

My pedal has no issues once you start pressing it but at first its always soft...

[nfi]

I disagree, there is a master cylinder stopper around that's around ~$80 or so, it looks like it will help with the initial soft pedal feel.

My pedal has no issues once you start pressing it but at first its always soft...

If you visualise how the brake master cylinder stopper helps.... ie. once you have pressed the brake pedal hard enough that the firewall is flexing and the master cylinder can stop that flex..... you'll see what I mean that it can't help with the initial soft pedal.

If your r33 gtr is properly bled with good fluid etc and nothing is wrong with the master and you think its soft you'd be disturbed by how bad ABS equipped gtst's and s14-15 feel!

If you want to sell your brembo's let me know

[Birth]

I recently bought a Cuscu master cylinder stopper. NFI is right in that it does ot change the initial feel, but it did make it feel better under heavier braking. At $80 second hand it was worth it, though it does nothing for the initial feel.

Get someone into your car hand have them put their foot down very hard on the brake - you will see your master cylinder step out a bit (mine was about 1cm). If you have them step on the brake pedal and hold it mid way down to simulate 'initial feel' you will see that the cylinder doesn't move at all.

[some_cs_student]

If your r33 gtr is properly bled with good fluid etc and nothing is wrong with the master and you think its soft you'd be disturbed by how bad ABS equipped gtst's and s14-15 feel!

If you want to sell your brembo's let me know

They have been bled a couple times to try and get it right, its always got a little soft feel at the start, haven't driven a GTST, maybe I'm too fussy

Only selling the brembo's if your offering even better brakes for the same price

The point above about the stopped making no difference to initial brake feel is interesting, I thought it would do something there....

[pipster11]

well i just bled the abs ask suggested and i dont think it has made a difference at all

(haven't driven it yet)

but i saw no bubbles so thats good enough for me

will just put up with it and maybe upgrade master cyl eventually

[SLAPS]

My 32 GTST brakes feel light for I'd say 1/8 of its total travel but with good pads that light area also is very grabby. When jumping out of the Commodore in to the Skyline that light area and its extreme grabyyness is a little annoying when pulling up to a stop as it causes you not to brake smoothly.

The pedal then quickly but progressively goes wood hard and gives very good pedal feel to stop a wheel or two locking under hard brakes.

Running Feredo Pads, Nulon brake fluid - non-ABS.

The commodore on the other hand provides a good firm pedal through the whole of travel but when braking hard the pedal squishes reducing lockup control but really its no biggie as by that time the ABS does its thing, the Commodore also has a master cyl brace standard.

Edited May 3, 2009 by TheRogue

[Birth]

The description of repairing the master cylinder looks pretty straight forward in the manual (attached). I called Nissan and the rebuilt pieces are $180 dollars as you get the rubbers and the pistons as a set. A new complete master cylinder costs $643.

Has anyone come across a rebuild kit that is cheaper than $180?

Brake_Master.doc

[Wacky Dee]

If that's $180 from Nissan I'm sure you can get it cheaper elsewhere. For example, the OEM master cyl is $420 delivered from RHDjapan.com This is for a genuine OEM master for an R34 GTT.

The problem is labour involved in rebuilding is about $300. For me the master cylinder isn't a major issue as all it's doing is making the brake sink slowly when pressed in ..about .5cm every 10 seconds. This doesn't bother me at all. What bothers me is the mushiness and initial travel of the brake pedal..

[Birth]

I am back on this topic. I now have braided brake lines all round, RBA slotted rears with Bendix standrad pads, machined Nissan 296mm rotors rotors up front with QFM 550 pads and a Cusco master cylinder stopper. All-in-all I am happy with the braking performance of the car - it brakes well!

Given that I think that the braking is good I am now focussing on feel - my braking 'feels' crap. I think this is becase I need very little pressure on my brake pedal to start braking which does not firm up most fo the way through the pedal. I am thinking that I need to harden the peday up. There are two ways I have thought of to do this. 1. Change the spring in the pedal increasing the resistence against me pushing down or 2. remove my brake master which is a harder job and requires me to get some extra bits but will also save me space and weight.

Has anyone considered these before?

[Wacky Dee]

has anyone had the brake master serviced or replaced with a new one and in doing so fixed the initial spongyness on skylines with abs ?

[SS8_Gohan]

nismo braided lines

motul rbf600 fluid

qfm a1rm pads

brake cylinder stopper

- just did lines and fluid today

still soft pedal. master cylinder is the next step. What exactly would an upgrade be? GTR cylinder?

[wlspn]

Just found this thread (after making my own about same thing...)

I had the single-piston calipers from standard on my 32 GTST & had awesome pedal feel right from top of pedal.

Then fitted R33 4/2 pot calipers & although they pull the car up good, the pedal feels like it goes about halfway down before anything really happens...

So when the engine was out recently I fitted the 33 master & booster but still have the exact same pedal feel!

Doesnt seem like anyone has solved this problem?

[Sinista32]

R32 GTR 92 model

Upgraded to GTR R33 Brembo calipers and had them fully serviced by PBR before install

New DBA Rotors

New Braided lines

New QFM45 pads

High temp quality brake fluid

I have the stopper

Occasional driving for the last month or so.

No feel at all for 50% of the pedal travel and spongy thereafter before comming on. But it stops.

Pumping several times helps a bit

I have now had it Bled twice by a Brake shop and no difference.

I;ve read the whole thread and gained some knowledge.

Where to now guys - Master Cylinder, Booster, both ?

Silly thing is that the brakes were fine prior to the upgrade

[MrStabby]

No feel at all for 50% of the pedal travel and spongy thereafter before comming on. But it stops.

Pumping several times helps a bit

I have now had it Bled twice by a Brake shop and no difference.

I;ve read the whole thread and gained some knowledge.

Where to now guys - Master Cylinder, Booster, both ?

Silly thing is that the brakes were fine prior to the upgrade

There's probably still air in the system (you too SS8 and wlspn). Did they bleed the ABS unit? FWIW the order should be;

Left rear brake

Right rear brake

Left front brake

Right front brake

Front side ABS (nipple closer to the front of the car)

Rear side ABS (nipple closer to firewall)

[Sinista32]

Arghhh the bastards.

Did front left, rear left, front right, rear right and no ABS - Grrrrrr

Been back twice. I'll think about getting them to do it again for free

PS. Thanks MrStabby

I'll post the result.

[Roy]

I keep old brake pads for use when bleeding brakes after I have ripped everything off and broken lines.

Throw the heavily worn pads in and bleed the brakes. The pistons will be well out of the caliper. Once you have bled the brakes I remove the worn pads... crack the bleed nipple with a hose on it and push back the pistons all the way into the caliper. I bet you see bubbles

I then install my new pad on that side of the caliper and repeat for the side that still has the worn pad. Once you have pushed back all the pistons and have your new pads in then crack the nipples again and pump some fluid through.

You will find when installing new calipers etc that there is air at the back of the pistons. When you bleed brakes you are bleeding between the master cylinder the the nipples on top of the caliper. if there is air behind the pistons or downstream of the nipples it isnt comign out unless you stroke the pistons all the way out, fill the backs with what fluid you can with bleeding and pumping and then with the nipple cracked push the pistons all the way back into the caliper. Any air will come out the bleed nipple with the flow of fluid rather than back up the lines to the master.

Feel free to post blank cheques to me when this fixes your problem. if it doesnt do the trick then apologies for making you jack the car up and fluff around with fluid all over your hands etc...farking dirty, messy brakes can be bastards to bleed some times

[Sinista32]

"There's probably still air in the system "

Issue resolved:

Cause: Air in the system - Brake & Suspension Shop put rear calipers on the incorrect sides thus mounting them up side down. ie: bleed valve at base (air rises!).

ACT Brakes took less than a few minutes to identify this, 20 mins to remedy, then bled in the correct order and the ABS was bled as per recomendation in this thread.

Brakes work great for the street on the existing BMC

however to make it even better I'm putting on a new BM57 (17/16) to suit

Which I orderd just in case.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Lesson - check the obvious and mark the calipers FR, FL, RR, RL. Perhaps in brail for the blind

[Roy]

Serious? Paid mechanics installed calipers upside down ? Fark me there are some thieving muppets out there who have no clue about anyting other than taking peoples money off them

[Sinista32]

Shoulda checked the DIY's and done it myself. I'm such a lazy bastard.

I could forgive a mistake by a new apprentice and the subsequent visit fixed BUT

3 visits to the brake specialists and the owner of the shop doing the test drive afterwards saying "geez mate that's not good - I dunno whats wrong".

Check the internet for a solution.

[MrStabby]

Serious? Paid mechanics installed calipers upside down ? Fark me there are some thieving muppets out there who have no clue about anyting other than taking peoples money off them

+11ty. How can anyone who runs a shop be so casual about their customers safety? Unfortunately, I've become very used to this quality of service and level of competance...