97 had typical lousy rover brakes, put in mew rotors and pads last weekend and no improvement, last night jr calls from side of road with no brakes. I go to fetch him and rover and front reservoir is empty, top it off and I am able to nurse rover home with brakes that I can pump up but still sketchy at best. so today we install new stainless brakes lines to replace the rubber ones , bleed it and have no brakes. Bleed it again and still have no brakes. Take master and slave cylinder form parts rover and install and bleed master and then bleed lines and bleed one more time and still no brakes. I don't see anything leaking (although there must be a leak somewhere), can a caliper go bad and depressurize the whole system, could something in that ABS module be stuck open or closed or?? (ABS is disabled). I am open to suggestions

 

Can you power up the ABS pump manually ( with a jumper) to use it to help bleed the system???

 

Takes about 500 miles to properly bed brakes. I can lock up all four wheels on dry pavement with ABS disabled, not sure of your setup. Yes, not so much a caliper but the pistons and seals go bad all the time, just look inside the front wheels. You have four per caliper that can leak. When pistons corrode they scar the bore and the seals can't hold fluid in that condition. In wet or temperate locations you must change brake fluid more often, it's usually once a year but I do twice or more. Once it's milky or darker than what's in the fluid container then it's way past time to flush. Brake fluid (DOT4) absorbs water, it's the nature of the beast. The longer you go between changes the more harm the water does to your brake system.

Your getting fluid through the bleeders so it can't be the ABS holding it back. If your using the pedal to pump them to bleed it's not the problem. You have a leak someplace and you've gotta find it.

 

All new calipers, replaced BLACK fluid with fresh, installed missing O ring between master and booster and I can lock up the front on wet pavement, not usually something to brag about but this is the best brakes I ve had in two of these things in 3 three years. I still have way to much pedal travel - probably 2" before anything even thinks about braking. Has anyone tried adjusting the pushrod in the booster, I can see it is threaded and has lock nut on it I think.


Any thoughts on cutting down on that pedal travel

 

Don't adjust the pushrod, you're not fixing the actual problem at that point.

I'm slowly leaking fluid somewhere... I'm thinking the front calipers. But my pedal and everything else feel/work great.