brake pedal to the floor after new discs/pads/bleed
 

had a garage change my pads and discs all round and flush the brake fluid.

Car does brake progressively when using the pedal, qothough it is a little spongey
However, if I do hard breaking (like emergency stop) the pedal goes all the way to the limit, which is quite disconcerting. Also, its almost impossible to brake hard enough for abs to kick in. previously a spirited stop on poor ground would manage it easily.


With engine off the pedal firms up on second pump.
With engine on and constant firm pedal the pedal will gradually go down to the lowest stop.(the floor basically).

I'm sure it didn't do it before the new brakes.

garage didn't use a pressure bleeder, just did it with the pedal apparently.

I took it back and raised the concern. they said they would re-bleed it, but it seems fine and basically gave me the 'not my problem' type attitude. If they did bleed it again it's made no difference.

Does this sound normal? In every car Ive ever driven the pedal will feel hard under hydraulic pressure and never let you feel the floor or the hard stop for the pedal...

Volvo c30 2l petrol 2011.

Any thoughts and advice? the car seems okay in general driving but im worried Ill only get caught out in an emergency when I really need them!

That sounds dangerous and prob shouldnt be driving it until resolved.

Check the brake fluid, see how much is in there? if the lid is on tight and fluid has gone from the max line then maybe a bleed nipple is not tight enough?

Or just simply put, they introduced air in to the system.

I recently put front discs and pads in my V70 and pressure bled the brakes all round and I deffo do not have your symptoms, hope you get it resolved soon

Pads may take a little while to bed in and give full performance however that doesn't explain the soft pedal.

I would suggest either taking the car to a different garage who have a pressure bleeder or if you don't mind a bit of DIY buying one and doing it yourself.

I have this one which works well: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000ROAR..._KWtIFbVEGS9VQ

Sounds like air in the brake lines, when you press the pedal instead of the force acting only on the fluid it's also compressing air bubbles....so the pedal travels further.

My very trusted and experienced garage left some air in the rear pipe and I just knew the pedal feel was different....went back and sure enough there was a 'bubble' of air trapped and not far away from the bleed off point, after that the pedal was fine - all of the braking effort should not take up more than about 2" of pedal travel and deffo nowhere near the floor :shocked:

I would guess in this case it's also the rear pipes where air is trapped.

To be honest if the garage has got that sort of attitude (after taking your money) I'd go somewhere else.

Could it be the slave or master cylinder giving up?

this is my concern, that they ****ed the master by aggressively pumping to flush the fluid.

to clarify, if i brake gently or moderately the pedal probably moves a few inches and braking performance is okay.

it is under hard braking that the pedal seems to reach the end of it's travel.

Its very annoying as I cant prove the garage have ****ed something up

Also to be clear, for those with a c30.

if you turn on engine and apply constant hard pressure to brake pedal, is it possible for you to push pedal hard to floor? or does it reach a hard compressed point after couple of inches and wont go further?

with the engine off, the pedal does go hard, doesn't this rule out air or a failed master cylinder?

With engine off there's no vacuum assistance to the servo so the pedal will go solid, even with air in the system the pedal will still be solid - it's only when the brake assistance is on you really get a feel for what's going on.

I have heard that excessive pumping of the master cylinder can cause issues (taking it past its normal travel) and possibly make it leak. As far as I'm aware it's not good practice to use the pedal to push loads of fluid around, a pressure bleeder should be used with perhaps just the final touches with the pedal - with short travel.

Don't worry about the Master Cylinder now, make sure the lines are bled first and go from there.

You could try resting your foot lightly on the brake pedal using little more pressure than needed to overcome the return spring.

If the pedal sinks slowly to the floor I'd strongly suspect a problem with the master cylinder, probably aggravated by not using a pressure bleeder.

Pressure bleeding is fast, easy, safe and very effective at dealing with 'difficult' systems. For the home mechanic, the Gunsons Eezibleed is £20 from Halfords and works perfectly. I've had one for many years. The're great for fluid changes. I doubt that a professional unit is that expensive and I'm amazed that a commercial garage wouldn't use one.

I believe that bleeding in the traditional manner is no longer considered good practice.

Martin