Alright... so I decided to spend my boring day painting my calipers. I took off the top caliper piece to paint it. Finished one side (front and rear) nice and pretty and reinstalled the front pads and caliper, then I got someone to press the brakes to make sure everything was working fine, however, the brakes were extremely loose. Hmm, so I look back at my rear and I forgot to reinstall the rear back on so the piston was fully pushed out.

I pushed the piston back into place with a C-Clamp and installed them up then bled the brakes to assure no air... But... the brakes were still loose.. Checked the brake fluid level and it looked kinda low, so I ran off to buy more fluids and topped it off... Now it was working... kinda. It was extremely easy to press at first, but when pumping it would get tough. Tried it on the road, and no deal, brakes would barely work. So back up in the air, re-bled. Still same issue. Then I decided to bleed the entire car starting with rears, then the fronts, it got tough, but as soon as I bled my passenger front, it suddenly got real easy. Now the brake pedal can be slammed into the floor with a slight push.

Now, heres the funny part... I DEPLOY Tuesday 6AM! So I need this fixed ASAP so I can hand the car over to a buddy to watch out for it for me.

 

i believe the have to be bleed one side then the other, i know there is a trick to it, or maybe in an X pattern

 

Did you take the calipers off the car? If so did you put them back on the correct side? Just checking, done that before and you can never get the air completely out. Just sounded familiar.

 

Double check the calipers, especially if you disconnected it from the brake lines.

 

replace the caliper that the piston got pushed all the way out.. you probably messed up the seal in the inside... rebleed and rebleed. start r/r to l/r to r/f to l/f... once a piston gets pushed all the way out.. most of the time that caliper is done

 

Oh crap!? I hope that isn't the case... however, it seems that that caliper is working (Rear Right Caliper)... since the e-brake will still work and everything. I believe the problem is my passenger front... it makes air noises, and everytime I mess with the bleeding on that caliper everything gets crazy... If I can't figure it out tomorrow morning.. I may drive it very... carefully... to the shop and make them do everything.

And to you guys up top, yes everything was re-assembled in the right positions.

 

By the way, never disconnected the brake line, I just disconnected both bolts connected to the caliper slides so I could maneuver the top of the caliper around.

** Took it to the shop, they said it just needed to be power-bled, now it works like a charm lol, phew, dodged a bullet there **

 

glad everything worked out.. but your ebrake doesn't work off that caliper.. you have shoes inside the rotor that controls the ebrake

 

For future reference, when you bleed the brakes you should always start with the corner that's furthest away from the master cylinder and work your way towards it.

Also, I'm not positive on the tC 'cause I haven't had to mess with this, but normally there is a sqaure-cut seal inside the caliper cylinder that goes around the piston. It's just like an o-ring, but instead of being shaped like a cylinder connected in to a loop, it's like a square shaped string of rubber that makes a loop. The square shape helps it pull the piston back when you let off the brakes. When the piston get's pressed all the way out, it can unseat this seal (usually if the trailing edge of the piston passes the seal), which is why the caliper may not work properly afterwards. It's really not that difficult to fix - it just takes some lubrication and patience. If the seal gets torn or broken then you need a "caliper rebuild kit". (NOTE: This is NOT the same thing as a "caliper harware kit") These are generally a lot cheaper than a new caliper, but they take a lot more time and patience then just bolting a new caliper on.

 

Yep always start with the caliper fartest away from the cylinder which would be the passenger rear. It sounds like you just have some air in the system. I also rmeeber reading that someone installed the calipers backwards or upside down the the bleed screw was on the bottom.. just make sure this is not the case.