Re: Soft brake pedal

Posted by BH On 2014/2/19 9:43:53

When I was working as a parts counterman, we had a lot of problems with some replacement, aftermarket, wheel cylinders leaking after about a year of daily use. I found out that the parts manager had been specifying the cheapest house-brand cylinders on estimates to make sure we didn't lose the job to some tarpaper shack down the road. I started quoting jobs with cylinders from a more reputable/recognizable supplier and the problem went away. Yes, we did lose some business to the tarpaper shack, but we no longer had to eat the labor on any comebacks.

When doing brake work myself, I always flush all metal parts - wether new or reused - thoroughly with a good quality aerosol brake cleaner, but let them air dry for a good long time.

Garret, when you worked on those brakes, did you replace the steel lines? Even if you flushed existing lines that looked fine from all outward appearances, there could still be internal corrosion. In that case, you could be pushing some of that rust downstream with each braking application, which would slowly chew up the cups.