Hey all, I did my front brakes about a month ago. Gave ceramic pads a try and turned the rotors. Well, even after this time, they still feel rather mushy during braking. I have to noticeably push on the brake pedal more in order to stop.

What gives? I am sure there are different theories out there, including....

...cermaic pads suck...
...air in the brake lines...
...you did it wrong....


Thoughts?
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FOLLOW-UP SOLUTION: I had to manually adjust the rear drums and then reverse and soft brake to set them in. Need more info? Read on.

 

I would try bleeding them first.

 

You can also try adjusting your rear brake shoes. If they are still mushy and you have bled all 4 wheels and have adjusted the rear brakes, you might have a master cylinder going bad.

 

half way agree with misfit... Unless you exposed the brake system to air, dont worry about bleeding. I would however adjust the rear drums out. if you dont want to tackle this yourself, most shop do a clean and adjust the rear for under $50. That should pick your pedal back up.

 

Interesting thoughts everybody! My first thought was bleeding as well, but as crateampsrock (nice, name BTW, I agree, grew up with Crates) states, only if I exposed to air.

I DID take off the cap for the brake fluid reservoir before I pushed the caliper pistons back so that the fluid would freely overflow if needed. (And it did a bit because the fluid was changed about 8 months ago.) Would this constitute to "exposing to air" though?


And seeing I as still classify myself as an "intermediate rookie", if I am adjusting the rear drums, isn't that just over compensating for what my front brakes SHOULD be doing in the first place? Or is there something that I am missing with that?

Thanks again for all the help everyone!

 

Mushy usually means air.

But, check all your flexible brake lines. If one of those is about to fail it can get "mushy" too.

 

mushy doesnt mean air...mushy means gaps between friction surface and stopping surface... Adjusting the rear closes the gap that your shoes have to close to match that of the new pads on the front.

 

+2 on adjusting the rear brake shoes. It is super easy to do. Stop by any parts store and pick up one of these brake tools. I call it a brake spoon, it's just a tool that makes the adjusting process easier:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=390895_0_0_

Jack up the rear of the truck on both sides, high enough that you can easily slide under it and spin each rear tire by hand. Be sure to support the truck securely on jack stands and put wheel chocks in front of the front tires before you slide under it. Put the truck in neutral and release the parking brake. Once you are under the truck, before you do anything else, grab the tire and give it a good hard push. If the tire spins around more than about 1 and a half to 2 full revolutions when you spin it by hand, you need to adjust the rear brakes.

On the back side of each backing plate you will find an oblong shaped rubber plug, it is on the bottom side of the backing plate. Remove the plug and inside is the star adjuster wheel. Use the flat end of the brake spoon, stick it in the access hole and crank the adjuster wheel with the brake spoon. When you use the spoon the first minute or so you will see how much easier it is to adjust the brakes with the spoon instead of a flat blade screwdriver. I believe if you turn the adjuster wheel towards yourself, it will move the rear brake shoes out against the inside surface of the drum. Moving the adjuster wheel away from you loosens the shoes and moves them away from the drum. You sometimes have to loosen the shoes to remove a drum that can not be removed because the shoes are too tight against the inside surface of the drum. If you have not done so already, this is a good time to remove the drums and clean and inspect the rear brakes on both wheels.

Anyway, rotate the star adjuster wheel so it tightens the rear brake shoes against the inside surface of the drum. You will know when you are moving the star wheel in the right direction because it will take more effort to spin the wheel by hand. You will also hear the shoes scraping against the drum as the wheel spins. On mine I like to adjust the rear shoes so that when I give the tire a good hard push while lying on my back underneath the truck, the tire will turn about one and one-quarter of a full revolution before it stops. You can make a reference chalk mark on the inside of the tire to help see how far it turns. You will also know it if the rear brakes are adjusted too tightly. The wheels will be hot after driving and you can smell the heat and friction of the brake shoes.

Adjusting the rear shoes should help bring the pedal back up to normal again. If you still have mushy brakes after adjusting the rear shoes, either bleed the fronts again or get the truck to a shop and have the entire brake system bled. Some say it is good to have the entire brake fluid lines flushed and filled with all new fluid every few years anyway.

Jimmy

 

Just throwing this out there for consideration , long story short ( i hope ) i went through just about the same as your now going through on your front brakes ,, ended up haveing to replace the rear brake shoes and wheel cyl`s as i found out after trying to adjust them , that they werent even working at all ! Got all that work done , lines completely bleed and all new fluid , and the brakes still were alittle less responsive than i expected them to be ,, figured i could replace the master cyl to fix it or just live with it and adjust to the feel accordingly ,,, then someone posted , not sure if on this site or on the dodge durango dakota forum , about the caliper`s and where they slide on their mounts , how they can get grooved to the point where the caliper doesnt float freely anymore and sticks sort of in the same position no matter what , and besides replacement of the spindel assembly , the only other thing to try is fileing down the high places to match the low places on the slideing area , well i checked mine out and seen where it had the very same problem on both side`s of the vehicle !! i was able to file down , shape and smooth out the high spots and make it more level to the worn spots , i didnt get too carried away with fileing , just enough for a smoother caliper slide , and it made a world of difference on the peddle feel after a few stops . Now the only trouble im having is the noise comeing from the rear brakes when i lightly apply the brakes to slow down to an almost stop , sounds like an old school bus stopping with all the screeching noises going on , i have read somewhere that this was a common problem for the dakota`s and if i loosen the adjustment to the rear shoes it would stop the noises ( wouldnt that put me back to square one ?),,, or better yet , i can replace the Chinese made auto parts chain store shoes with OEM shoes from the dealer to solve the problem ? I think i`ll look into that ,,,,,

 

Awesome! Thanks for the full report SilverCC, I may wind up giving that a try to see if it helps the cause. Doing this change worries me though, out of all the tutorials, and all the videos and even the Haynes manual, NOTHING mentions I need to adjust the rears after I do a front brake job.

Nice tidbit there Rob! So you are saying the back of the brake pad and the piston on the caliper are not lining up properly? Or are you talking about how the caliper actually attaches to the caliper mount? Guess I am just having trouble picturing it. haha

Thanks again everyone for the replies!