Brake pedal travel

[Mikey22]

Hey guys,

Trying to work out why my brake pedal is travelling nearly to the floor before brakes fully kick in. It's a Clio 200.

Had an mot and failed due to o/s rear brake imbalance. Sat too long with handbrake on. So took the top off the rear caliper and cleaned up the disc and pads then built back up.

Further note that there is no fluid loss, reading is still full. But can require pedal to be pumped to get better pressure.

Prior to the top of the caliper coming off the brakes were fine so has to be that. Could I have accidentally wound the caliper back too much or taken too much off the pads and it's left a gap?

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks

 

[Gus]

Sounds like you have air in there somewhere.
Would be well worth you bleeding them which is easy of you have someone to give you a hand pressing the brake pedal.

 

[James363]

Yeah, sounds like air in the system. It can happen after you rewind the piston, don't ask me how, but I have seen it. You can also bleed the brakes on your own if necessary, ChrisFix on YouTube explains how if you don't know, and it also reduces wear on the bleed screws and callipers.
It's not possible that you could have taken too much off of the pad, since the piston in the calliper moves out to meet the pad, and doesn't go all the way back in when you lift off the pedal.
Also, just a question, you did "wind" the calliper back as opposed to just pushing it back in with a G clamp? Because if it is a rear calliper it can be damaged but just being pushed back in because of the handbrake mechanism.

 

[Mikey22]

Hey guys I have an update on this and it's good and bad. Brake problem solved, but it turned out to be a loose hub nut!! Which is weird as was mot'd yesterday and nothing mentioned.

Noticed a knocking noise today, immediately drove home as I have access to a ramp out the back at work. Raised the car to check and there was quite a bit of play in the wheel. So retightened the nut to correct torque etc and took for a drive. Brakes were spot on and noise had gone. Downside is I had to drive it a total of 30mile like that so fingers crossed no permanent damage

 

[James363]

Damn yeah, I had a similar problem on my front wheel, although I know I torqued the hub nut correctly when I put it on. I replaced the bearing anyway because mine's a rally car and I can't risk it. Its really odd that the clio hub nuts are castellated but have no split pin. Come to think of it, mine had the exact same symptoms when my hub nut was undone, but there was such a knocking I knew what it was. If the bearing is ok, there shouldnt be any other permenant damage.