Hi All,
This isn't my first brake bleed and have been successful int he past with my Motive bleeder kit.
I’ve recently installed a 320mm Big Brake Kit (with new seal kits) onto my T-5R, I’ll try not to rant on too much here but I can’t seem to get a good feel in my brake pedal (spongey and goes to the floor). I know this could be down 1 of 50 potential issues but here’s the steps I took:
Remove old calipers – this is where the issues started as the time taken to swap over to the new calipers took too long and as a result a lot of fluid had leaked past the caps I had placed at the end of the hose. I do believe air has made its way up to the ABS module.
Bleed brakes are per the recommended process: furthest one first and all that jazz. I used the Motive brake bleeder kit for this job (used it previously on other cars and worked a treat).
The bleed resulted in no air being released and no change to pedal feel. I carried out a further 2 bleeds each a day apart and still no air. I noted that the pedal holds pressure (pump, pump, pump, hold) with the engine off without any issues. When I start the engine the pedal would go to the floor.
Before the 4th bleed I drove to a local gravel road and braked on a few occasions to activate the ABS module & during the bleed itself I hit the calipers with a dead blow hammer which actually released a lot of air from the FL caliper. I thought I had it but no change
On the 5th bleed I had a mate help with the pedal pumping. I raised one wheel off the ground and put it in drive to activate the ABS module for a longer period of time & also managed to find a bled a nipple on the ABS module and then continued with the usual bleed starting from the year. No air released and pedal hasn’t changed much. Maybe a slightly better feel but still spongey and goes to the floor.
I’m so lost with all of this right now, that I’m planning on reverting back to the original brake setup and testing system again.
Potential issues and reasons I think they’re ok:
- Master cylinder seals might have failed but then it wouldn’t have held pressure when engine was off.
- Leaks or weeps but nothing noted when I have a good look around the BBK
- I thought the that bleeding the nipple on the ABS module would have sorted the issue but I didn’t read anywhere in the Volvo documentation about this bleed nipple. All the documentation state the only nipples are on each caliper.
Thanks for any advice anybody might have.
