wightntegra

alright i got a 95 gsr that sat for a few months now the brakes are acting up. i found one leak and fixed it but im still loosing fluid and ive found no new leaks. sometimes the brakes are fine then others i gotta pump them driving down the road again then there good. i can pump the brake with the car off and they get hard as a rock and stay that way till i start the car. also the resivor was completly empty when i started this whole process. any advice before i just start spendin money on things i dont need?

Lynxs1981

The pedal will get hard when the car is off, that is normal. If the fluid was empty, you need to bleed the air from the whole system.

joe_kewl81

should just need the brakes to be bled, dont be afraid to take your time. Procedure helps too, dont be in a hurry or youll just put the air right back in

Driver

I had a brake master cylinder go bad in my old integra and had similar symptoms. It would work w/out a problem for awhile and then next stoplight I'd have to pump the brakes like crazy to get her to stop then it would work fine again. also leaked out of the back of the MC where the pushrod was. If it turns out to be your MC going bad carquest, if you have them in your area, sells the remanufactured ones that are original equipment-Nissin, for right at 200bucks. Not terribly hard to replace yourself if your a fairly handy person. Good luck on tracking down the problem man and be safe untill you do. having no brakes when you step on the pedal can be damn scary.

but like the other guys said definitely try replacing the fluid and getting the air out of the lines before you buy a master cylinder.

cruzalekz

ur car is unsafe to drive not only for you but the other drivers around you.
i work on brakes all the time. If your reservoir is empty, that means brake fluid is coming out somewhere. places to check are 4 bleeder screws on brake calipers, pistons, metal lines. back of the master cylinder which will drip to the brake booster.
I hope you find the leak and get it fixed.

Ps. if the leak is at the master cylinder, let a pro take care of that part specially if you are not mechanically inclined.

Driver

Cruzaleks has a great point there. If there is a problem with the brakes it's just dangerous period. I'm sure you know that a car that doesn't stop is no good at all. And to add to what I said earlier, if YOU do attempt to change out the master cyliner yourself (if it is in fact your problem) you WILL need a flare-nut wrench, Basically a regular wrench with a few extra teeth, in order to get the brake lines free from the master cylinder. I tried my best with a regular wrench, didn't work, hit it with the flare-nut wrench and the lines broke free right away. Also, I don't know if your mechanically inclined at all but if it makes you uncomfortable messing with such an important system as brakes are then pay some one to do it. If you can handle it go for it and save yourself some money. After getting the lines free, and removing faulty master cylinder, bench bleeding the new master cylinder and then bleeding the lines is the hard part and not that bad really. Bench bleeding the master cylinder isn't that hard you just need to hook up some tubing from the outlets, add fluid and feed them back into the MC reservoir making sure not to let them suck in any air and pump the piston (where the pushrod contacts) untill you can no longer see any bubles being formed in the reservoir. Essentially you are bleeding the air from the master cylinder itself. You MUST do this before bolting it back up into the engine bay. Reconnect the brake lines.
Once you have the MC mounted and are ready to bleed the lines bleed left front, right rear, right front, left rear in that order. You do this with a small bolt that is on the caliper. Just open it up and have someone pump the brakes untill you see a steady, air pocket free, flow of fluid coming out, tighten it back up as soon as you see that its air pocket free. Also you will be dumping some fluid out in this proccess so make sure not to run out of fluid in the reservoir while bleeding. When your done with that top the reservoir off of neccessary. Again good luck, brakes are your friend, and if it's not your MC then sorry for making you read all that. I hope that we have been a help to you.

Spec R

good points made here. i've also found it easier to pump fluid through the system with the engine running..the FSM said to do it with the engine running for my 00 LS. With the engine in vacuum, the brake booster should be in action, along with the abs. its not totally necessary, but it might help.

wightntegra

thanks ill give it all a shot this weekend....i havnt tried bleeding it yet with the car running....

A-series

IF the problem is a bad MC, I'd try autopartsgiant.com, or at least a Cardone Reman from a local shop. I got a new Cardone for my civic from that site for ~$75, reman. was the same.