Honda accord brakes

[automechanic]

I have a 1997 Honda accord. When I step on the brakes they don’t come on until hey good almost down to the floor. It’s not spongy or hard it just don’t work until it’s about an inch from the floor. What could that be?

Topic

[Andrew Phillips]

Low fluid? Worn pads and/or shoes? Poor adjustment on rear brakes? Those are three things to check.

[automechanic]

That’s all good

[automechanic]

Brake fluid is full pads and shoes are good. Rear brakes are adjusted. Could it be the master cylinder

[Mike]

Did this start suddenly or has it been coming on for awhile?
If it was a sudden change, how long ago did it happen?

[automechanic]

It’s been doing it for awhile like 6 months

[Mike]

I was thinking that you had a rusty brake line blow out today or something, and the fluid had not emptied yet. That’s obviously not the case, but your problem sounds similar to when a rear brake line rots out and you lose the fluid, but still have 2 brakes that work.

I know you said the pads are fine, but I’m going to share a lesson I just learned on my mom’s 2000 civic. She didn’t complain about it, but the pedal felt just as you’re describing for more than a year. Everytime I drove it to work on it, the brakes felt terrible and it drove me nuts. I had already done the front brakes with good parts in the past, and they looked fine although halfway worn. I adjusted the rear shoes, cleaned the rust lip off the drums, did a very thorough brake fluid flush and it did nothing after doing each thing. They worked and she was fine with it, so I just did everything I could that was free to her (not throwing parts at it).

So she has me come over to drive her car because of a brake noise, I get there and the R/F outer pad is metal to metal. I bring it to work to replace the pads and rotors and notice that the other 3 pads have about 20% pad thickness left, so what sense does it make for the outer pad to be worn more than the inner? If caliper slides seize, the inner pad wears out first and goes metal to metal, so what’s with the outer?

I take all the pads out, and the friction surface falls away from the steel backing plate, having become rusted to the point of the bonding coming undone. After I replace them, the pedal feels great. Turns out all that pedal travel was due to having to compress the rust balloon between separated brake pads before they squeeze the rotor properly. The pad that went metal to metal just happen to be the first one where the friction material suddenly slipped out and the backer went straight onto the rotor suddenly.

[automechanic]

All the brakes are new and the line are in good shape all the air is out of the system

[Author]

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