poor brakes

[bigblue2]

i hope someone can shed some light on my brake problem, basicly the pedal feels lifeless, there is a fair amount of travel before anything happens but then the brakes seem to pull up fine but the pedal is slow to return and it feels like the brakes stay on for a short while after the pedal is released, i've changed front flexi hoses and bled the system plus cleaned all the slide pins and copper slipped them they all nice and free cleaned the caliper carrier where pads sit and the lugs on the pads, the brake pedal seems to have around 2" of play at the top, any ideas please

[mjb]

With the engine off, push the brake pedal firmly for 15-30 secs. If it slowly sinks over the time and you've got no fluid dripping anywhere, I think you may be looking at a new master cylinder

[bigblue2]

that idea was at the back of my mind but hoped its not that as been told its a total pig to change, thanks for advice though

[mjb]

Hmm can't see what would be so hard, just a bit messy and tedious as you'll need to re-bleed your brakes (and potentially clutch)

[bigblue2]

its just a friend told me he changed the master and servo and it was a right pain but it seems easy enough to get to unless there is something hidden, are the repair kits worth getting or maybe jus a second hand one

[jasper5]

Don't even consider fitting repair kits or second hand master cylinder.New cylinder every time.

One thing, if you have a brake hose clamp, fit it to each brake hose in turn, if the pedal goes firm when the hose clamp is fitted, that brake needs bleeding.

[bigblue2]

tried the brakes as described above and the pedal goes down about 3/4 of the way before it firms up but once its got the pressure it holds it there fine , so from that i'm guess master is ok can't find fluid leaking anywhere and brakes work ok when the pedal pressed hard enough but it just doesn't seem right having that much travel , there is one thing that keeps coming back to me though when we towed it home i triedd the brakes and the pedal stayed down and brakes locked on but released after i manualy pulled pedal back up

[steve_earwig]

Eek! Sounds like something's up with the master cylinder

[Captain Jack]

Try bleeding the brakes first - may be all that's needed (and make sure there's enough hydraulic fluid in the reservoir)