What have you done to your Miata today?

[princess peach]

I have a question for you guys: ever since I got my car I've felt that the brakes are not right, I have to press the pedal about half way before the brakes start to bite. I flushed the system once to replace the fluid, and bled them again just in case but it didn’t change. Phen drove it and confirmed what I was thinking at the time which is a possible master cylinder issue. I was thinking about ordering one BUT last night and this morning I noticed that after reving the car a bit, the brakes worked a bit better, so now I think it might be a booster issue. Is this a common thing with the NB? Could it be a vacuum line or something like that?


I was told to put the car on high revs and try to use the brake, if it feels better then most likely it’s a booster issue. Won’t have time to try it till I get off work but I wanted to get your opinions

 

[WillD]

Got it out, changed the oil, and drove it around with the top down.

Pablo, I read some stuff on M.net and it doesn't sound like the brake booster based on what I read over there: https://www.google.com/webhp?source...dcb350d65902750&ix=sea&ion=1&biw=1380&bih=798

If nothing else the first couple links have some stuff to try to determine if it is the booster or not.

 

[bazooka joe]

drove her to work this morn!!! woot, woot! it's awesome to be back in the msm...didn't realize how much i missed her!

 

[WillD]

I stood in my garage for about 5 minutes debating which one to drive to work today. Somehow the Miata lost and I'm regretting it now.

 

[princess peach]

hmmm I have no issues with idle, I'll have to try the pedal with the car off but I think that will be fine as well.

 

[mx-p5]

had a high idle issue (2k at idle stopped)

poked around under the hood and found a vacuum line came off, reseated it and good to go

 

[aMaff]

I was told to put the car on high revs and try to use the brake, if it feels better then most likely it’s a booster issue. Won’t have time to try it till I get off work but I wanted to get your opinions

If it was a booster issue, you wouldn't have dead travel, you'd just have a really hard pedal. I'd start with the master cylinder, AFTER you make sure there aren't any leaks anywhere else in the system.

 

[WillD]

If there is a leak I would guess that you've had to add brake fluid at some point since you've purchased the car?

 

[princess peach]

If there is a leak I would guess that you've had to add brake fluid at some point since you've purchased the car?

no, no leaks. Reservoir is still full after the second time we bled the system.

 

[JamesCH]

hmmm I have no issues with idle, I'll have to try the pedal with the car off but I think that will be fine as well.

no, no leaks. Reservoir is still full after the second time we bled the system.

How did you bleed the brakes?

My brakes have been acting the same way, and it started not too long after a brake bleed. The theory is that when I bled the system my friend who was pumping the pedal pushed it much further than it normally goes and might have gotten some residual crap on/around the master cylinder piston seal and damaged it. The symptoms seem to match up. I plan on replacing the master cylinder once it is driving again and I can reconfirm the issue.

 

[princess peach]

1. the issue was there when I got the car, fluid was a shade of green. Had 62k miles so it might have been the original fluid, replaced it with Wilwood 570

2. I was pumping the pedal and Evan was letting the fluid out, usual way (farthest caliper first). Second time I had the car on stands and running, activating the ABS, I read somewhere that is another method to make sure the ABS is not causing the issue. Wasn't very convinced but tried it anyway, no change.

3. after work, I'm gonna bleed them again with a power bleeder, make sure there is no air in the system. I ordered a master cylinder just in case but hopefully this will work.

 

[princess peach]

sigh... so, we used the power bleeder and for some reason the front brakes didn't let any fluid out... fluid only came out when pumping the pedal. There was very little air in the system, not enough to cause the issues. By the time we were done, the brakes are worse than before, pedal almost goes to the floor before it starts to bite. New master cylinder is on the way, should be here on Monday.

Another weird thing is that with the car on, and pumping the pedal, Marc didn't see a lot of movement on the line and pad on the rear left side, he did see movement on the others... any ideas besides the master cylinder?

 

[Tungsten6]

My car has a very slow leak going on. No idea if it's the clutch slave or Ty suggested it could be coming from a brake line. Haven't had time to jack it up and check everything, hopefully Tuesday.

 

[THE Phen]

sigh... so, we used the power bleeder and for some reason the front brakes didn't let any fluid out... fluid only came out when pumping the pedal. There was very little air in the system, not enough to cause the issues. By the time we were done, the brakes are worse than before, pedal almost goes to the floor before it starts to bite. New master cylinder is on the way, should be here on Monday.

Another weird thing is that with the car on, and pumping the pedal, Marc didn't see a lot of movement on the line and pad on the rear left side, he did see movement on the others... any ideas besides the master cylinder?

Potential seized piston. Of course, being in the rear, they don't do a whole lot anyway... but I'd definitely check that out.

 

[WillD]

Went to pick something up from the store and my air bag light started blinking code 10 I've read about people having this problem over at M.net but I'm not really looking forward to troubleshooting the problem myself.

 

[aMaff]

Hella slammed, y0!

Finally got someone coming to haul this off and make something of it

 

[THE Phen]

Hopefully it's someone who is going to slam the car anyway, that way they stop ******* up perfectly good shells

 

[bazooka joe]

when is the SS going in?

sorry, wasn't ignoring you ....maybe next week...working on selling my house right now

 

[subspeed6]

Oh yeah..... I sold mine....

I guess this will be my last post here for now......

 

[chiefmg]

sigh... so, we used the power bleeder and for some reason the front brakes didn't let any fluid out... fluid only came out when pumping the pedal. There was very little air in the system, not enough to cause the issues. By the time we were done, the brakes are worse than before, pedal almost goes to the floor before it starts to bite. New master cylinder is on the way, should be here on Monday.

Another weird thing is that with the car on, and pumping the pedal, Marc didn't see a lot of movement on the line and pad on the rear left side, he did see movement on the others... any ideas besides the master cylinder?

Pablo, I had a couple of issues with mine that were related to the vacuum line going to the booster. The first was that when you stopped the engine, the brake pedal would slowly go to the floor. This was due to a missing restrictor in the hose (PO had replaced everything with silicone). That wasn't so bad, but the second problem happened after I had installed my shock tower brace. I didn't notice it but the hose on one end of the hard line going to the booster became kinked. I was out driving and slowing down for a turn, the first time I put on the brakes they were fine, on the second application the pedal went straight to the floor and nothing happened. If you haven't already take a look at the hoses (there are two, one at either end of a hard line that runs along the top of the firewall).