Keith's '02 Protege ES Worklog

[Sleezer1533]

Thanks man

[Sleezer1533]

couldn't take it anymore and did teh front:











Didnt get it aligned yet ... wondering if I can make it to the end of the month without significant ill effects to my tires
...also Kost wont do alignments on lowered vehicles so Ive got to find a place to do it

On a side note, I have a slight clunk when going over uneven ground ... is this something to do with the swaybar/endlinks?

[FE3-323]

likely has something to do with the endlinks. that or you missed something during install.

[Sleezer1533]

No extra parts, so I dont think Im missing anything

[Sleezer1533]

Replaced the front pass caliper, put on new front rotors and pads, and bled my brakes

The pads from the pass. side that were causing the high pitched squealing


Brand new Pass side


My homemade DIY one-man brake bleeder :p

[FE3-323]

awesome!!!.... be sure to have some fluid in the bottom of that bleeder system & severely shorten the hose.

[Sleezer1533]

The pic was taken after bleeding but yea there was fluid used to keep from air being sucked back up, but I used that length and it seemed to work fine

[Sleezer1533]

Received these today:


and whats this that came with em, theres two, bleeder caps?

[FE3-323]

wooo SS brake lines. are they coated??

[Sleezer1533]

Oh boy I really did it now:

Went and replaced the front brake hoses with SS braided ones. Everything went good except the fitting at the top that connects to the hard line wasnt keyed like the OEM one but I got it in there reasonably solid.

Anyway I started bleeding the drivers side ... pumping the brakes about 50 times bubbles would come out only at the last 1/4 of the pedal travel basically only when it was pressed to the floor, no fluid would come out. Went to the passengers side and pumped about 5 times with bubbles then fluid came out. Got frustrated and put everything back together, started the car and now the pedal has no pressure goes right to the floor and builds a slight bit of pressure if I pump it like a madman but other than that no pressure.

Being that I have work in the AM, I need this fixed and clearly the drivers side is the problem but I have no clue what that problem is...

[irishkev90]

The fitting between the hard and SS line perhaps?

[FE3-323]

if they are full hex & not one rounded edge. just take it to the grinder & make a rounded edge. i had to do that years back on a set i bought. once they are properly fitted you can actually tighten the hardline to the SS lines. alot of times if your even a little bit under rated they will leak air/fluid.
short of that, go get a vacum bleeder & put that on. your master cylinder might need some additional assistance because of all of the air in there.
if you let the master run dry too thats an issue you'll have to pump out too.

[Sleezer1533]

Ok so Ive been neglecting my thread lately heres the rundown:

Car is without brakes right now. I was having issues with the front brakes starting to engage after about 15 mins or so of stop and go driving. I assumed what had happened was I crushed the inner core of the brake hoses last time I did the brakes and they werent letting pressure off. So .. I bought new SS braided front hoses...
Well, I got the hoses in and the front drivers side wont bleed. Figured out that the Master Cylinder isnt pushing fluid through that line
So I ordered a new one from autozone. They ordered the one compatible with ABS, I need the non ABS one, so I returned it and had em order the new one which should be here tuesday.

I also got to thinking that I might as well make sure everything is properly functioning to make this go as smoothly as possible. That being said, I stripped out the adjestment allen screw on the rear calipers when I did the brakes and the rear pass. caliper bleeder screw and hole were all gunked up b/c the screw cap had fallen off at some point.

So I ordered three new calipers (The front pass. side I had just replaced).



and painted em


Sooo, all that being said, with any luck the new calipers will be going on Monday as well as the old MC getting pulled. Then tuesday I get out of work at 1 so hopefully I can get the new MC bench bled, installed, all the lines bled, and the E-brake finally adjusted.
Fingers are crossed

[Mazda_Powered]

nice good luck!

[Sleezer1533]

So got started on the brake work today to get everything ready for the new master cylinder to go in

Started with fixing the brake hoses, the fitting to the hard line wasnt keyed the right way so I took a grinding wheel with my dremel
Before:

After:


Line all in passengers side:


Then I started getting the last three calipers in:
Drivers front:


Drivers rear, no shot of the passengers cuz its the same


Properly adjusted the E-brake


Then pulled the master cylinder out, had to take the intake and battery out to get good access to it

Fluid leak causing the bubbled paint?


Got the master cylinder out and pushed the piston in: Fluid sprayed out of the top fitting but not the bottom one or the side one
Should it have sprayed out of all of em?

Anyway, I should get the part tomorrow, but I work 12:00 to 7:00, so Ill get the new master cylinder on my lunch break, then I work 8:00 to 2:00 on wed. so Ill try to the the new master in after work and if all goes well the car will be up and running again