Last Lemming

I have an 86 Turbo. Pretty much stock. I currently have SS brake lines and about a year ago I pulled all the calipers and replaced all the seals with Stoptech seals of the same size which were the only ones I could find for the Brembos. I used Ate lube to lube the seals as well. When I took the pistons out there were no signs of any debris or blockage. So I installed the seals and reinstalled the calipers - front and back and complete bled the system. When I pulled the calipers I also removed the Pagid Blue pads as they squealed like stuck pigs and dusted horribly - but boy did they stop the car good! I replaced them with a ceramic pad that ended up being so bad at stopping the car that I quickly replaced them with EBC Red Ceramic pads. Ceramic because I was trying to reduce the dusting. They were better but were not close to the instant stopping power of the blues. I went with ceramic in hopes for less dusting. I bled the system several times with the Motive Bleeder with zero bubbles ever coming out during the bleeding after the first initial bleed but I never got what I would consider is a firm pedal. My BRZ has Brembos and they feel fantastic at the end of their brake pedal travel.

I just replaced the EBC with Pagid pads (OEM) and while the braking is better I did not achieve a firm pedal at the end of brake pedal travel I was hoping for. And yes, I did bed them in first before any evaluation was taken. In an effort to chase down the firm pedal I've just completed the painful work of installing a new brake booster and master cylinder (Ate) in hopes of achieving the firm pedal, but alas, though I have no bubbles coming out I still don't get a firm pedal at the end of the brake travel. It just seems a bit soft still.

So basically my whole braking system is new and/or serviced, any thoughts to where I should look next, or is this the way the pedal on a turbo is supposed to feel?

I should also note that while the pads on the front brakes touch the disc while you rotate the tire by hand, the left front seem to have more static pressure on the disc than the right front. By this I mean the right front spin freely for a few seconds, while the front left stops almost immediately after you spin it, however the car does not pull to one side or the other when braking hard, it does lock up the front left sooner though. I'm not sure why both don't feel the same.

V2Rocket

are you sure you bled both halves of the calipers?

Last Lemming

Oh yes, both several times with no bubbles and in the correct order. I'm suspecting that it may have to deal with seals but I'm not sure how to evaluate them correctly.

Turbodan

I assume you have replaced the fluid with new?

Last Lemming

Absolutely- several liters have passed through at this point.

Arominus

Have the new pads fully broken in yet? i felt like my S2 wasn't so firm after i swapped to R4S's and it took a little bit for things to break in. After driving it for a bit, i bled again and its been fantastic since. Still not as firm as a 997 w/ a gt3 master or anything, but good, solid pedal.

odonnell

I remember your thread about replacing the booster. Did you adjust the free play? It can be bled perfectly but still give the impression of soggy brakes (low pedal) if it's not set right. MUST be done after having the booster out. The WSM has easy instructions for setting it, also recounted online if you search. Basically just adjusting the pedal clevis much like the clutch. I needed to adjust my free play by around ~3 turns (so 4mm therebouts) after fitting the new booster...granted I went from Lucas/Girling to ATE, and also from a Girling to ATE master cylinder at basically the same time. It changed the brake feel a lot, even at just a seemingly low adjustment level. YMMV

Last Lemming

Yes I did adjust the free play.

StoogeMoe

Probably this. You need to bed in new pads when changing compounds like you were, otherwise they won't work at optimum performance.

Jfrahm

I do not think that'd cause a soft pedal, although hard stops can haelp move an air bibble to a place where it can be extracted.

If you have not tried my technique from the last thread it's worth trying and even doing it 8 times, inner/outer.

pdxfj

I just went through this on a friends 914. He installed a new m/c, bled the brakes all the way around but couldn't get a firm pedal.

I took my power bleeder over and bled then again. No change. Left pressure on the system and got in the car and gently pumped the brakes.

Air came out of the master and up the hose. I continued to pump the pedal about an inch, repeatedly until the bubbles stopped.

Brakes were back to normal after that. Seems the air trapped in the m/c wouldn't come out even with my motive bleeder.

Just another idea to toss out...

Last Lemming

I don't know if they are fully broken in, I bedded them by getting up to 45 mph and breaking as hard as I could (I could not get the brakes to lock up). I did this 10 times. I drove at normal speed and parked the car. Once cool I did the same process again.

PaulD_944S2

Do you have an old set of rotors that you could try?

I had a vehicle that the brakes absolutely sucked on. I had replaced pads and done everything to make better, even disabled the ABS hoping that might be the culprit. At some point, for no logical reason, I decided to replace the rotors. OMG, what a difference! I can't, for any reason, understand why the rotors made any difference since they looked just fine, but they did.

Since you have done just about everything else at least once, maybe try this?

Something else I thought of, your turbo should have a proportioning valve; have you tried inspecting, cleaning or replacing it?

arthropraxis

Tighten your front wheel bearings.

Last Lemming

I will keep the rotors in mind, but I've thrown a good bit of money and time at this. I want to exhaust as many "free" ideas first.

Actually I bought a new proportioning valve too when I changed the MC.