Help Me! Shocking brakes after refit

[stormduck]

Hi chaps, wonder if anyone can help with my issue. I've been doing quite some work to my T the last month: Front sachs refurb, fitted Ktec solid top mounts, Poly bushes fitted to lower wishbones and anti roll bar, new track rod ends, lower balljoints, koni adjustable rear dampers, mark fish springs all round....think that's it.

Well, in doing this work i thought i'd repaint the callipers, so i removed them from the car, and the hoses, and let the brake fluid drain from the system at the front. I've refitted everything, but had an issue when bleeding the system. The drivers front and passenger rear behaved as expected - I usually get someone in the car to pump the brakes till the pedal's hard, then i release the bleed nipple and the pedal goes to the floor, tighten the nipple, pump the pedal and so forth. But the passenger front and drivers rear simply had no pressure in them, when releasing hte nipple all i was getting out of them was a constant trickle of fluid.

So, my mate went home and brought back a pressure bleeding kit whereby you hook it up to a spare wheel, and the air pressure forces fluid into the system, so you undo one nipple at a time and the fluid, with any air flows out. We done this a few times on each wheel. Then i went round this evening in the rain, doing each corner twice with at least 250ml of fluid through each one...and no air came out whatsoever.

So i went for a drive...good news is, suspension all seems fine. But the brakes are SHOCKING! Now....one thing i did do that i see an issue with - On removing the rear callipers i noticed that i fitted the pads incorrectly over a year or so ago...i didn't notice a lump on the back of two of the pads that is supposed to fit in a groove in the piston of the calliper....i'd fitted one side with bother lumped pads, the other with both smooth pads.....so this time, i swapped them to make them right......

went i went for this drive, i noticed the front discs got hot, and were clean, but the rear's were scrubbing only slightly and not evenly across the discs...so i think i've done a boo boo?! But i'm quite surprised that the biting point for the brakes is well down the pedal, and forcing it towards the floor doesn't have much force in them?

Secondly, and the thing that's concerning me, is that as soon as the car moves forward, the SERV light and ESP light comes on the dash. Switch engine off and they aren't there the next start, till i move. Now, i didn't touch the driveshaft with the notches, or the sensors for the abs/esp during this work so i'm confused? Could i have dones something without realising, or would these lights come on because i still need to the geometry set up, or cause my brakes are naff?

I'm rather tired, and i've got a cold so apologies if i've being dumb but my head is like soup at the moment :mrgreen:

If anyone can help me that would be great!!
cheers. dave.

 

[bearne1]

Not too sure on the bleeding but sure ive read somewhere that you need the car running when doing it to ensure ABS pump is bled.

Did you do this?

May not be as not really touched the brakes on the T. Would rather pay my mate an hours labour as he owns his own garage!

 

[liam1610]

As stated try bleeding the brakes with engine running, so don't pump on pedal till hard just start car then push down on the pedal and hold it down then get another member to crack the nipple off till pedal goes to the floor then do the nipple up and repeat the procedure, if this fails due to letting fluid run out of the system its a garage only job, some systems need plugging in to prime or older systems need priming by hand first to get them started.

As for serv and esp light i would first sort the brake fluid out, im guessing a level or something is low somewhere hence why its flagging up, unless some damage has been done to one of the sensors or wires, or the abs rings are out of position if driveshafts have been removed.

 

[Sir_Dave]

Sounds like you've got air in the abs pump by letting the front bleed out completely. Might also explain the Serv/ESP lights (although that could also be due to leaving one of the abs sensors off/or it having dirt in it from removal).

Me? I'd take it to a garage. If you put the rears in the wrong way round, no offence, but you shouldnt be messing about with brakes :lol:

 

[Jonc]

Yep, sounds like you have air in the abs and apparently a real bitch to get the air out of the system. You may have to bleed the system again until all the air has gone and will take a lot of fluid to do this. You may have to take it to Renault so that they can connect it up to their diagnostic system for them to manually actuate the solenoids in the ABS system to fully bleed the system. I've done brake fluid change on mine and have been told never to allow the brake fluid reservoir to drain.

 

[liam1610]

As Jonc says you need the solenoid open hence having the car started to bleed may work, i know renault can do this or i know the RSTuner that henk does with the abs module will do that too, so if you have one to hand will help.

 

[stormduck]

That's great cheers for that fellas. I get the T back from the paint shop tomorrow, i've bought a new set of rear pads to solve any potential issue there, and will run the engine and bleed the system again with this neat little pressure kit. It can push though half a litre before needing the container refilled, so i'll do that on each corner and keep my fingers crossed

Reading a post that's just started on here, my esp light coming on could be due to the new track rod/ends being fitted and not adjusted yet.....I'll sort the brakes first

 

[Jonc]

Be extra careful with the pressure bleed system. Don't let the bottle containing the new fluid go empty or you'll end up putting more air in the brake system, more as the air is under pressure!

According to the haynes manual bleed them in sequence:

left front
right front
left rear
right rear

 

[stormduck]

All sorted now, replaced the rear pads then took into garage. System was bled three times using a sucking method and now she's all good. Needs some more heavy braking to clear the discs/pads and they've been getting progresively better. All the lights on the dash related to the steering angle sensor which was discovered when plugged into diag. thanks for all the help!