Brake light still on after pad replacement and flush

[ProwlerGT]

I have spent the past 3 days replacing all 4 rotors, all 8 pads, cleaned the shims, cleaned the calipers, etc.. flushed all lines with new fluid, made sure to bleed and get all air out. Car is still as it was before which is with BRAKE light on and the brake pedal is soft and goes all the way to the floor and makes a POPPING sound once it gets almost near the floor. What gives? I have new pads, new fluid (and the lines were very dirty; 136K miles), cleaned calipers/shims and I still have my BRAKE light problem with the popping soft brake pedal. I did notice a very small amount of leakage from my rear caliper disassembly bolts (for the calipers themselves), BUT I thought this could be due to the clogged junked up lines and that maybe I would've fixed this by unclogging. Other things I noticed are that virtually all the pads I had on there were unevenly worn and either it was just dirt or the previously installed anti-seize had caked up black and gummy between the shims. The driver side rear shims were out of place and one of them was broken. I know I have bled the system properly and I have not worsened the problem because the car drives the same except now the braking is a little bit firmer and stops better while there is no longer any brake noise. STILL I have this soft popping brake pedal and the BRAKE light is on. BTW - My brake fluid is topped off. At this point I'm fearing the worst (Master Cylinder), but I'm hoping that someone on the forum can advise otherwise. I really am thinking master cylinder because of the brake pedal issue. I was hoping too that with the work I've done that the brake light would've gone away, but now I can only surmise that whatever the brake pedal popping and being soft is from is probably related to the brake light coming on still. Someone help me. I was going to take my car to work this morning, but its 6 AM CST now and I just can't trust it at the moment even though I have no dead spots in my braking (test drive).
The other thing I'm fearing is that I need to rebuild my calipers at least in the rear due to the leakage I saw, but they really didn't look that bad. I'll have to watch and see if the leakage still occurs since my work. I thought I may have saw my front calipers leaking too, but I can't recall. Its all a blur now, but since I'm 136K miles I'm wondering if this is just something I should've done by now anyway. Again, I hope someone can help. Do you think adjusting the brake pedal would help??

[ProwlerGT]

Some advice would be nice.

[RuFF RyDer778]

Well don't know if it gets very cold in New Orleans but up here in VA when it gets to freezing temps my brake light turns on. Sometimes it turns off after getting warmed up and sometimes not. But this only happens during the winter months. Never could track down what it was but its not life threatening just annoying.

[JoeShmoe]

A soft pedal tells me that you have air in the system somewhere. I would also suspect the master cylinder assuming you feel confident that you bled the system according to the repair manual. Did you bleed the calipers in the proper order? With the car running?

-Joe

[ProwlerGT]

Well here is the order of what happened.
1. All calipers and rotors removed
2. Brake fluid dripped into 4 containers
3. Lines flushed until clear fluid came out of all 4 of them; pumped the brake pedal several times while my sister watched
4. All calipers and rotors put back on.
5. (here's where you caught me) I bled all the brakes, but you are right I didn't go in the order that the manual said. I did a circle instead. I intended to follow the manual's order starting with the pass rear, but after that I forgot to do the driver front first and instead did the pass front, then driver front, then driver rear. Clear fluid came out of all and again the brake pedal still feels the same as it did before I did all of this work.

You really think I'd need to rebleed in the correct order?
I'm thinking master cylinder because of how old the car is and for how long now the brake pedal has been doing this same thing (since before my work on it). What is the typical replacement age for a master cylinder?

[Chris GTO TT]

Even if you leak is small it will still lead to a soft mushy feel to it From the air in the line and the fluid escaping. Make sure you have no leaks.

Im not sure on how important bleeding the brakes in proper order is though.

[JoeShmoe]

I don't know about the caliper order either. I would probably follow the repair manual just to be sure. I'd spend a few bucks on more brake fluid and rebleed them before I replaced the MC of course. Also the car is 10 years old at this point. I wouldn't expect anything to definitely last 10 years on a car. So I guess I wouldn't be super surprised if the MC was bad.

-Joe

[ProwlerGT]

The more I think about it the more it has to be the MC and/or rebuilding all calipers with the caliper rebuild kits. If I have to rebuild them all I think this time I'll paint them and have my car sit up for a while. I guess its time to look into an air ratchet. That would've really sped things up on this crap.
Anyone else have any suggestions about this?

[Elina75]

Check the threads from last few days from this forum and all-wheel drive forum. I had the same problem after changing the brake lines to SS and also changing the fluid. I didn't realise if I dried the system, I need to bleed the main cylinder first. I bet this is your problem. Just check the earlier threads, and bleed yout cylinder first, and then the brakes them self.

Originally Posted by ProwlerGT

The more I think about it the more it has to be the MC and/or rebuilding all calipers with the caliper rebuild kits. If I have to rebuild them all I think this time I'll paint them and have my car sit up for a while. I guess its time to look into an air ratchet. That would've really sped things up on this crap.
Anyone else have any suggestions about this?

[mykiss69]

Originally Posted by ProwlerGT

I have spent the past 3 days replacing all 4 rotors, all 8 pads, cleaned the shims, cleaned the calipers, etc.. flushed all lines with new fluid, made sure to bleed and get all air out. Car is still as it was before which is with BRAKE light on and the brake pedal is soft and goes all the way to the floor and makes a POPPING sound once it gets almost near the floor. What gives? I have new pads, new fluid (and the lines were very dirty; 136K miles), cleaned calipers/shims and I still have my BRAKE light problem with the popping soft brake pedal. I did notice a very small amount of leakage from my rear caliper disassembly bolts (for the calipers themselves), BUT I thought this could be due to the clogged junked up lines and that maybe I would've fixed this by unclogging. Other things I noticed are that virtually all the pads I had on there were unevenly worn and either it was just dirt or the previously installed anti-seize had caked up black and gummy between the shims. The driver side rear shims were out of place and one of them was broken. I know I have bled the system properly and I have not worsened the problem because the car drives the same except now the braking is a little bit firmer and stops better while there is no longer any brake noise. STILL I have this soft popping brake pedal and the BRAKE light is on. BTW - My brake fluid is topped off. At this point I'm fearing the worst (Master Cylinder), but I'm hoping that someone on the forum can advise otherwise. I really am thinking master cylinder because of the brake pedal issue. I was hoping too that with the work I've done that the brake light would've gone away, but now I can only surmise that whatever the brake pedal popping and being soft is from is probably related to the brake light coming on still. Someone help me. I was going to take my car to work this morning, but its 6 AM CST now and I just can't trust it at the moment even though I have no dead spots in my braking (test drive).
The other thing I'm fearing is that I need to rebuild my calipers at least in the rear due to the leakage I saw, but they really didn't look that bad. I'll have to watch and see if the leakage still occurs since my work. I thought I may have saw my front calipers leaking too, but I can't recall. Its all a blur now, but since I'm 136K miles I'm wondering if this is just something I should've done by now anyway. Again, I hope someone can help. Do you think adjusting the brake pedal would help??

the brake light being on may be the emrgencybrake light switch.they are prown to come on.what happened that you done all this work in the first place?if you had a spongy pedal its not going to be the pads unless they are all the way down to the rivits.prob not the calipers if there was no fluid pouring out of them.i just remembered one time i put pads on my car and i did have a spongy pedal for a little bit till the calipers got adjusted to the new pads.it didnt last long.backed it out of the shop and then they worked fine.how much have you drove or messed with it?