Okay so I bought an 2001 Jimmy, all around pretty good shape.
Brakes are spongy, put new shocks on and inspected brakes when I was at it, near new pads, rotors in good shape, no grooves or pitting, so I bled the brakes aaand they're still spongy.....any ideas?

 

When you push on the pedal hard and fast, are they stiff like they should be and then slowly go spongy? Sounds like you could be having an issue with your master.

 

Did you check the rubber hose brake lines when you did the shocks? Any soft areas in the hoses?
More likely the master cylinder, but something else to check.

 

check the movement of the pads and pins in the caliper, if everything is rotted and stuck in place it will give the same results. i recently did rear brakes on a astro van, 3 of the rear brake pads were at 8mm (pretty much new) and one was grinding on the rotor. so that was the only pad that was working back there. had to take a hammer and smack out the old pads out of the brackets they were so stuck

 

richphotos- no they are spongy then grab at the end.
Lannyl81 - Yes I checked the lines and no weak spots
abig84 - checked the movement of the calipers when I bled them, none stuck.

I was hoping it wasn't the master, thanks guys.

 

Have you recently done any work to the brake system that could have potentially gotten air into the ABS module?

 

Nope, I have done nothing with the brakes except inspect and bleed; I did notice when I bled them that the fluid was kinda dark/dirty.....

 

Did you pump the pedal while bleeding, or did you gravity bleed them? Different procedure for bleeding these brakes.

 

Hey Captn.,


Can you point us to the procedure? (Sticky maybe?!)


Or do I (we) HAVE to go through all 3k+ pages of the S/M ?
(Yeah, I'm LAZY!!)


(the next on the to-do list - 4 wheel brake job,(defiantly need rears + backing plate, might just as well do the fronts) from M/C on down, and....[the list continues.])






P.J.

 

Hey Cap'n,
I had my 15 year old do the pumping while I bled.

pjf1313
1) Loosen the bleeder, tighten back up slightly.
2) then have partner pump the brakes three times, hold on the third.
3) open the bleeder wait for the fluid and bubbles to stop and close the bleeder.
4) Repeat as needed until no bubbles.
5) Repeat for each wheel cylinder.