So I was putting a fuse in my fuse holder for my amp and accidentally dropped the cable and it sparked around my brake master cylinder. I thought nothing of it but when I went to start my car afterwards and my pedal goes to the floor now. The brakes work just not that great and only really work when the pedal is almost to the floor.

I have checked my fuses and all seems to be well any ideas or prolly just a coincidence?

-Chance

 

try bleeding them, might have cause some air bubbles...if thats possible by what u did?

 

the pressure has nothing to do with electrics unless you somehow messed with the abs/solenoids

 

My brakes have been soft for years and I've bled and bled and have had shops bleed and nothing fixes it. It doesn't leak or anything, so its really hard to find which part if any that I need to replace. Hope this doesn't happen to you..

 

I dont see how air would get into a system if there wasnt any to begin with?

when I push the pedal it just feels like I am pushing a pump until I get to the bottom of the pedal it barely starts grabbing.

Thanks for the fast responses BTW.

 

I'm thinking this is where the problem lies. I don't think anyone has narrowed the fix of the soft brakes issues but would it change anything to bleed the brakes with the key in the ignition in the "ON" position?

 

I don't think your electrical mishap has anything to do with it. Sounds like a coincidence or you did something else by accident.

Never heard of an ABS car you have to turn on to bleed brakes for.

Brakes are pretty simple once you get over how complicated they are.

If it holds pedal pressure you don't have an external leak.

If the pedal sucks with the car off, then you have air in it or your MC is bad.

If the pedal is good and stops high with the car off and then feels irratic (grabby, not linear, unpredictable) with it running, your booster is probably bad. *Vacuum retention is NOT the only test for a booster. Don't let manuals fool you.

Funky pedal problems are usually in the master side of the system and in my experience master cylinders either work or they don't work at all.

 

when I pump my brakes the brake/clutch fluid reservoir shoots liquid up as I am pumping.

my fluid level has not changed so I dont think I have a external leak.

Is it possible to get air in the lines without there being any in there in the first place?

 

I've never heard of it happening... but then I've never DC arc welded on my MC with a battery cable.

If your MC is shooting out fluid I'd think you've got a bad master seal

I would bleed it, and then see how the pedal feels with the car off and if it feels OK try it again running.

 

you should prolly check to see the booster vacuum is still connect to the manifold

 

He can check, but that would just make the pedal feel stiffer. That's not the problem he's having.

 

the fluid is supposed the shoot up like that when you press the pedal at least for most cars....don't do this without the cap on for obvious reasons. I'm pretty sure thats normal. There are some cars, mostly newer that NEED a scan tool to operate the abs solenoids to be properly bled. The FD I don't think does. It does sound odd for there to be air in the system when there wasn't before but the symptom seems like air in the system. Its pretty easy to do....while waiting to hear of a real fix.

And yea the booster having problems would cause a really hard pedal.

 

I've only ever seen the fluid shoot out on GM's with the pop-on plastic cap. There might be others, but I've bled a ton of imports and none of them have ever shot the fluid out of the resevoir with the cap off.

A booster can also cause irratic/non-linear brake response despite holding vacuum perfectly.

 

Maybe it's just the GMs then. I believe this happens because of something called the quick take-up valve....which moves a lot of volume with relatively low pressure to help with initial braking.

yea the fluid squirting is only for quick take-up master cylinders which I guess the FD doesn't have. So you may possibly have a bad seal.

 

i'm guessing you did have brakes just prior to this? maybe you drove the car that day or something? I have a feeling the power wire did a little damage if you're certain it wasnt like this before hand. I was messing with the connection on top of the alternator one time and bumped the throttle cable with my end wrench... burned straight through the cable like a knife through butter. maybe you now have a tiny hole in the pipe coming from the master cylinder or something like that. Either way it will be something leaking or letting air into the system.