Hi Forum,

have a gen 1 coupe (brought it home with me after a stint in Cyprus) and recently had a stuck caliper on the Near-side rear wheel causing burning smell and the odd wisp of smoke.

Took it to the local garage who advised a new caliper and also a new handbrake cable as this one was fraid. Opted for a non genuine caliper and handbrake cable £105.00 and £50.00 respectively which they fitted Thursday.

Picked it up Thu evening, drove towards traffic lights, very happy at having the car back, and nearly ran the red light as the brakes pedal now needed to be depressed nearly 3 quarters before it started to brake. Not impressed.

Asked a few petrol heads at work today who said almost certainly it's air in the brake hydraulics. Took it back to garage, they bled the system, I drove it away and sure enough braking was working again, nice and responsive.

Parked up at work for 5 hrs but on leaving tonight I have the same unresponsive brakes as before.

Prior to having the caliper and handbrake cable replaced I've had no real issues.

Anyone able to offer a diagnosis?

TIA

Mike

That sounds like a problem I had with the gen2 where the master cylinder is losing vacuum.

If the master cylinder goes completely there are no brakes at all. There is a quick test you can do to check the master cylinder but I can't for the life of me remember it.

I can.

Stop the engine.
Pump brakes, the pedal should become hard to press.
With your foot applying pressure, start the engine.
The pedal should move towards the floor as the vacuum builds.

If it does neither, then the servo is faulty.

Sounds to me like there could still be air in the system, or fluid leaking (from a bleed nipple perhaps) somewhere...

Cheers for the good advice guys, I will give this a go tomorrow morning and see what happens.

Gave that a go, pumped brakes 5 or 6 times to build up the vacuum, turned on engine and sure enough the pedal continues to sink down with some light foot pressure (maybe about 4/5ths of the way to the floor).

Took it around the block a few times, but still quite spongy, and I'm having to depress the pedal to about halfway down or more to get any kind of meaningful bite.

Spoke with garage again and he seems stumped by it (they are a Vauxhall specialist) and he'll take another look on Monday for me.

Sounds like it could be the rubber seals sticking on the pistons.
When you apply the brakes the pistons are pushed onto the pads which, in turn, press onto the disks.
If the seals are sticking, the pistons will get pulled back into the calipers, rather than just pulling back from the pads.
When you assemble the pistons and seals into the calipers you're suppose to lubricate them slightly with brake fluid. If this wasn't done you could well develop the problems you are experiencing.

if they have replaced the caliper, check your fluid level, has it dropped?

if so then it could be the fact that they havent fitted the little copper crush washer, when pressure is applied brake fluid leaks out and therefore you have air in the system.

It sounds like a leak somewhere - first thing to check is the brake fluid reservoir level to see if it has dropped at all?

I had a problem not dis-similar to this but slightly different in my old Corolla AE86 - I got some "mechanics" to do me a brake job as a "homer". When I drove off - after the work has been done, down a very steep hill - and hit the brakes, nothing happened apart from the pedal going to the floor..

Went back to their house and almost battered the two idiots (a father & son) when they said they forgot to tell me that my master cylinder had failed.

The actual problem was that they had fitted brake pads that didn't actually fit properly and would not move against the brake discs. You wouldn't expect that to cause the pedal to go all the way to the floor, however, that was the cause - once the brake pads were changed (by myself) all was well in AE86 driftland

I've done all my own work on cars since that fateful day!