KrazyRushin

My brakes were getting to be pretty bad, so I decided it was time to replace them. I have an '04 S2000 that I bought mainly to autocross. I bought the Centric Premium rotors, stock pads, and ATE Blue Racing Fluid. I had some problems with bleeding, but I feel confident I got all the air out after several attempts. In the excitement of completing the job, I went out celebrating by driving hard. Well, the brakes didn't work so well. They felt spongy and had very little bite. Bled again and found no air. I had forgot to bed in the brakes. I went out the next day and tried to bed them in as I was told (accelerate to 60, brake hard to 25 and repeat like 10 times. Well, I did this and after they smoked, smelled, etc., I was finally able to get ABS to kick in. I thought "Success!" I'm not so sure though. Autocrossing today made me feel like I was driving a really heavy truck with a very long brake pedal. I came in to every corner too hot because the brakes took too long to bite... And even when they did, they felt weak and really failed to stop the car. Did I ruin them? How can I diagnose? Is it likely the pads or the rotors?

TIA

starchland

honda oem pads? how does the pedal feel? did you manage to get air into the system? what kind of bleed method did you use? was the rotor surface clean after installation? imo pad bed in should not involve smoke...

zeroptzero

^ This , it shouldn't smell to much either, definitely no smoke.lol It should be moderate braking during bed-in, not hard braking.

Check the pads and see if they are glazed over now - shiny metallic/mirror surface, if they are then rub them over a piece of sandpaper to get them looking dull again.

A spongy pedal is almost always air in the system, you said that you had problems bleeding, describe the problem and maybe we can figure out what might have happened. You normally wouldn't get air in the lines during a pad swap unless the master cylinder ran dry. Sometimes it takes several bleeds to get all of the air out, even though you said that no air came out. I'd keep bleeding and check the pads.

realblag

Are you sure you got the slots on the rear caliper pistons aligned with the tabs in the pads?

vishes

My first time doing the brake bleed and I had the same result. I was under the suspicion that the OEM fluid was no good but i believe the main reason was flushing the fluid incorrectly. Did you gravity bleed ?

s2000maniac

Yes the new pads will smell and smoke and thats totally normal, especially during bedding.

Saki GT

You did not bleed the system well.

Rdizzle

Soft brake pedal usually means you have to do some more bleeding. Try engaging ABS a few times and bleed again.

Have you tried checking and cleaning the surface of your rotors with brake cleaner? If you get brake fluid, caliper grease, or any other grease on the surface, it will impact your stopping ability.