LR4 brakes soft/hard

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sceh

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I have posted about this before:

The brakes are usually pretty sharp (only 35K miles) but sometimes when maneuvering, the pedal will be soft and pumping does not help. Take the foot off and try a couple of times and it is OK. On the road so far there has been no sign of anything amiss but at very slow speeds I can stop sharp and then the next press is soft - halfway down and little braking.

Today I drove into my garage and the brakes were suddenly quite hard but did not stop the car well at all. A few weeks ago I had very hard brakes and the car would not start until I had both feet on the pedal.

Today after the garage debacle, I felt the discs - the rear were stone cold and the front quite warm.

ANY ideas? If the rears were not working surely the car would indicate this?
When I tried to stop in my garage, the pedal was very soft and then pumped up hard and then is OK.

I am stumped
 

Quijote

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You need to start by giving the brakes a good brake fluid flush. Very important. In the process, inspect or have the lines inspected.

Start there.
 

ktm525

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Disc temp front to rear is normal. 80%+ is handled by the fronts. x2 on the fluid and make sure they use the correct low viscosity brake fluid (ceck manual).
 

sceh

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Just ordered 5 liters of DOT4 so will get to work in a couple of days and report back. No faults indicated by the IID tool though
 

jlglr4

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Maybe check your brake vacuum pump and lines too. And, at the risk of stating the obvious, check the calipers to make sure they’re not binding up, especially in the rear since you noted the cold pads.

I’m not aware of any sensors on the car that will detect a problem with the mechanical components of the brakes themselves other than low fluid or pad wear. If a caliper seizes, nothing is going to tell you that to my knowledge.
 

sceh

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I have another car that needs a flush..
 

sceh

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Thanks for advice so far.
Every time I have bled brakes in the past I have done the two man method where I undo the bleed nozzle, they depress and then I tighten again. I have never done the single man lethod where you dip the outflow pipe into a bottle of fluid and simply pump and keep the master cylinder full.
How come fluid is not sucked back out of the bottle when the brake pedal is released? No valve needed? Seems too easy to be true!
 

ktm525

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Thanks for advice so far.
Every time I have bled brakes in the past I have done the two man method where I undo the bleed nozzle, they depress and then I tighten again. I have never done the single man lethod where you dip the outflow pipe into a bottle of fluid and simply pump and keep the master cylinder full.
How come fluid is not sucked back out of the bottle when the brake pedal is released? No valve needed? Seems too easy to be true!


I have gravity bled (hours and hours), two man, positive pressure (built simple pressure device out of a garden sprayer for master cylinder) and used the mity vac on the bleed ******* (suction) but never one man pumping o_O while bleeders kept open. Does that work?

In my experience the mity vac was the best. You do get air bubbles in the line from bleeder to the mity vac but that is just air coming around the threads of the bleeder screw itself. There is no air "introduced" into the brake system unless you let the master cylinder run dry. Pro tip: First use mity vac to drain most of the master cylinder. refill with fresh and them go attack each wheel. This reduces the amount of dirty brake fluid you are pulling through the system.





.
 

sceh

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try this:


I will give it a go but it seems too simple to be true
 

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