Ladies and gents,

Completed a brembo swap yesterday. Background: Rebuilt some ebay brembos with factory seal kits. Installed on 2003 enthusiast 350z with Z1 premium SS brake lines. Aside from the premium lines being a pain, the install went as expected.

Before bleeding, placed motive power bleeder on reservoir and pressurized to 15 PSI. I am losing 1 PSI every 5 minutes. I filled the reservoir with one bottle of fluid and re-pressurized with newspaper under all four calipers and lines. No leaks or smoking guns were found.

A couple of thoughts. I think the premium lines with the blocks are a hassle and inferior to other kits (3 connections vs 2 in the front). Several bolts are over tightened... due to how the connections and junction blocks work.

I'm wondering if I should bite the bullet and simply buy better lines. I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks

 

The leak is probably the seal at the filler cap - don't worry about it of you can't see any other leaks in the actual hydraulics of the system. Also, you don't need anywhere near 15 psi to get a good bleed, and you can actually cause leaks in the reservoir part of the system with that pressure - it was only built for a gravity feed, not pressure. 5 psi is safe, and more than sufficient for bleeding.

 

Appreciate the reply... I went ahead and bled the brakes tonight with limited success. Still no leaks, but the brakes are mushy. My first pump goes almost to the floor, the second is much better, the third is pretty solid. Wait ten seconds, and the brakes are mushy again.

I completed three rounds of bleeding, with bubbles each time from passenger rear side. No bubbles from the other calipers.

I guess I can continue to bleed, but I can't help feeling like I've got an issue else where.

 

Not sure if these help but here was my experience while doing the same swap... A friend of mine is a head mechanic for merc so i'm lucky he helped, but:

1) make sure to bleed both sides of each brake (photo), not sure if you did this or not

2) these are self-seating/adjusting pistons... It takes some time for the fluid to settle in the calipers and to fill around the back of the pistons and firm up the seals...

My brakes were mushy for the first day or two as they seated/adjusted themselves and it broke my heart after spending all the time rebuilding and installing.

For a few minutes I thought I was going to have to sell the car hhahaa. But after pumping and tapping a few times and after doing a few 40-0 and 60-0 stops, and one sleepless night, the brakes became very firm and now i'm 4 months strong with no issues (knock on wood).

My stock enthusiast brakes w/only 25k miles were brutal even if i were to only get groceries

I'm also using the z1 ss lines (with z1 slotted rotors & ceramic pads)

JC

 

I recall brakes not being perfect after caliper swaps.. bleed them a couple more times (with some driving inbetween) and maybe try to get some help to use the brake pedal pump method once too..

 

Appreciate the insight. I'm bleeding each half, but was getting bubbles from only one caliper. I haven't touched it since posting the other night. Gonna play with it again tomorrow night. Maybe I can do some around the village driving. In a fit last night, I ordered stop tech lines and more fluid. Hopefully three or four rounds of bleeding with around the town driving will help,resolve the issue. If not, I'm looking at swapping the lines and placing clean fluid. If that fails, I'll start looking at the master /slave

 

Thanks... Planning on doing precisely this.

 

Having quite the time with my Brembo swap. I've resolved the hydraulic issue by replacing the lines and adding speed bleeders. Almost couldn't believe how easy it was to bleed after installing the new lines and outlets.

That said, I've got a grinding sound that is either warped rotors or a stuck caliper. Perhaps both. The calipers are used and the rotors (Adams Rotors) came completely messed up. I've got another set of rotors to try and isolate the problem. If that fails, I'll pull the calipers and re-build. Pretty frustrated though.

I can definitely hear an oscillating sound from the rear right that points to a warped rotor. But I can feel it under breaking. At any speed, I can hear the front rotors spinning/ grinding against the calipers. Any thoughts?

 

After you did the speed bleeder, your brakes are perfect again?

I did an 07 full brake swap on my 03 with SS lines and I have air in the system. I did the front brakes, bled and everything was perfect. A few weeks later I swapped the rears and now I cant get a firm pedal. I have the same issue as you, first depress and it sinks, second and its fine for about 10 seconds. Iv bled the brakes 3 times using the manual 2 person method and results are the same.

I think I have air in the Master cylinder, is there a way to bleed that without removing it? I have limited work space at my GFs moms house and I dont want to dirty the floor too much.

 

I probably won't be the only one to say this but I've always had the best results (on many cars) using a Motive Products pressure bleeder, and it saves a huge amount of time, too. Never had good luck with the Speed Bleeders, although it's been a good 10 years since I've touched them. They used to leak air around the threads when you let off the pedal, even though there was a red-colored sealer on the threads. A few wraps of Teflon plumbers' tape helped, but I still think a pressure bleeder is far better. Vacuum bleeders aren't of much use.

You might try tapping the offending caliper(s) with a rubber mallet or block of wood to get the air to rise to the top.

 

Where to begin the update???

Once I received the sop tech lines and completed the brake line swap, I was able to get a perfect bleed with a firm pedal. I found the speed bleeders really helped smooth-out the process. No doubt the simpler lines helped too.

However, my brakes were still grinding at all times. By process of elimination, I confirmed my pistons were sticking. Was it due to my DIY rebuild? Probably. I had a local shop do the rebuild again and check the pistons for sticking. They only charged me 40 euro, pretty nice guys.

Then the next minor catastrophe strikes. While torquing down the rear right brembo to the knuckle, the caliper's hole strips. Upon closer inspection, a Heil-coil had been used to repair it by a previous owner of the caliper (must have forgot to mention it . It was crap and failed.

I am now looking for the actual specifics for the rear brembo caliper bolt specifics. Does anyone know the thread and pitch? The part number is 08041-2351A, but in my rage I can't seem to effectively use google.

/rant

 

While this is not intended to be critical, just some questions as I am confused by the following:

In your postings, you mention problems with the Z1 premium brake lines (using 3 connections vice 2 in front). Assuming there are no visible leaks in any of the connections, why would a spongy pedal be necessarily caused by the brake lines? The OEM Brembo (rubber) brake lines use the same 3 connection design and obviously cause no soft-pedal problem.

In reading the entire section, it's not clear if things improved for you as a result of the speed bleeders and/or new brake lines. Also, did you install Brembo's only in the front? Lastly, in Florida why do they charge for repairs in Euros?

BTW, my reasons for asking is that I was intending, at some point, to buy the Z1 SS brake lines, so your experience with them is of interest. Thanks

 

lol.... why AREeee they using euros in Florida?

THAT is the question.

 

see here:

https://my350z.com/forum/brakes-and-...ml#post8916883

-J