I'm bleeding my brakes. Have a totally new set-up, and replaced lines, rotors (n/a), and calipers and pads. So I filled up my reservoir with new fluid and did the calipers (which have two bleeders each) in order. Rear passenger, rear driver, front passenger, front driver. Thought I did it correctly so figured it should work. Took the car out to bed in the pads and it seems that only the front driver and rear passenger brakes are really working. They were smoking after a few stops so it seems the pads bedded correctly on those rotors. However the pedal was CRAZY mushy and went straight for the floor, as well as the car took a long time to stop.

I'm afraid there's an ABS issue, because this is normally what ABS does. It uses the opposite brakes on each end to get the car to stop properly. Anyone familiar with this?

I also read that sometimes a scan tool is required in conjunction with the ABS as to cycle the valves I guess, while you're bleeding the calipers. I have a scan tool I can use, but not really sure how that all works.

Any help at all would be great! Thanks!

-Paul

 

How are you bleeding them? Two people (pump pump release method) or a single person with a bleeder? I've done two brake kit R&R's (Lines, pads, rotors, calipers), my Stoptech kit and my brother's Brembo conversion and both kits came out great with solid firm pedals. I didn't have to do anything fancy with the bleeding, just the normal two person pump release method.

I don't think it's an ABS issue. The ABS system in the 350z is able to pulse each wheel independently and only the wheel that the computer sense is locking up. It would also be accompanied by the normal ABS buzzing and pulsating pedal if the ABS was interfering.

I would check all brake line and bleeder connections and rebleed them and road test again. BTW, what brake kit did you go with?

 

Check if the bleeder screw are closed all the way. No brake pedal that you speak of IMO might be a hydraulic problem. System leak may have emptied the master cylinder reservoir.

 

We did the regular two-person (down, open bleeder, shut bleeder, brake pedal up) method. Is it ok to pump the brakes in between closing off the bleeder and opening it the next time? We did that while I was changing between calipers to make sure that all the calipers were filling up with pressure.


I didn't really want to say which kit, but it's no secret anyways....so:



Akebono with stoptech slotted rotors and stainless lines. I'm excited for them to actually work hahaha

 

I made sure the reservoir was above the min line the whole time we did the process, so I really hope that's not the case...however I did notice a strange sound coming from the engine bay each time the pedal was depressed before opening the bleeder screw, which I had never heard before. It was like a "hhhhhuuuuuunnnnhhhhhhhtttt" sound hhahahaha almost like a goose???

 

You're supposed to pump several times again once you close the bleeder screw to build up pressure, then open the bleeder to release pressure. Do this at each bleeder screw until all the air bubbles are out of lines. Are you using clear see through plastic lines or normal rubber hose when bleeding? If you're using the clear plastic lines, you can actually see the air bubbles releasing out of the system.

Good kit for the price, we highly considered that kit when upgrading ours.

 

It sounds like air in the lines to me as well.

 

GOT IT! Re-bled the system today with my buddies help, and now stops on a dime AWESOME!!!!! Thanks for your helpful input guys.

 

Rebleed them , and they are PITA without the pressure bleeder to do them.

 

Same thing when I did mine. I just let it sit overnight and bled them again the next morning. All fixed. Glad yours worked out too.

 

if you went with a BBK , a slight tapping with a rubber mallet to loosen the airbubbles inside might be necessary too.


pump pump pump, hold, open bleeder, close bleeder, release, repeat.

 

^^ +1

Glad to see it worked out...

 

Just a question....? What happened to so many of the DIY's in the tech section? It looks like tons of them got deleted, and I was surprised to not be able to find a thread about how to bleed the brakes in the Z/G.

 

how long did the full install take?

 

I did both the front and rear in two days. It could have been done in one, but I didn't realize I had 4 jackstands in my basement (thought I only had two). I'm a master at disassembling my brakes and all now. Hahaha I could probably go out in the garage and take off the whole brake and hub assembly from one corner in about 20 minutes or less.

All in all, I'd say the install took about 5 maybe 6 hours, including removing the old brakes, and bleeding the lines with the new hardware on. The reason it took me two days though, is because I had to work each day I started working on the car. So I would start around 10:30A and then have to clean up by about 3 or 3:30 in order to be ready for work. This was my first time doing anything brake related on the car as well. So I was pretty pleased to come out of it having a much better understanding of the engineering and in the amount of time it took.