Spongy brakes

[IvegotaCommy]

Brakes on the Station wagon seem to be going down hill. Feel very spongy and don't pull up well.

Is that more likely to be air in the system or a crook master?

[wildss]

easiest thing to do is to give it a flush and bleed and if that dosent work id look at the master

[Morton]

Could be air in the brake lines. I suggest new pads, and a full fluid flush.

When your brake pads wear down, the fluid level in the master cylinder drops. Combined with a slight fluid leak, this can lead to the fluid level dropping below the master reservoir level under heavy braking, and draw air in.

Also be weary of simply topping up low fluid. When you go to install new pads and push the pots back in on the calipers, you can overflow the master cylinder with the returned fluid.

[IvegotaCommy]

Yeah, that's what I thought, too. I recently had the brake lines replaced (cause of rust on the outside) and they have never really been good since then. Maybe I should get a power flush? I believe they get small amounts of air trapped which can be very hard to move.

[centy]

nah mate modern cars don't have a problem with trapping air, just bleed them correctly. surface rust on the outside or brakelines is normal as they are bare steel.
drain the fluid out of the resicvior then clean out the black gunk in the bottom.now put a little back in and start bleeding the brake from the nearest whhel firts ie front driver, front passengers, back driver then back passengers.
bleed each wheel inturn till the fluid is clean. making sure to keep fluid in the resivoir.
if you can con the missus and a mate into helping it makes it so easy.
! pumps the brakes and holds them down for you and the other keeps topping up fluid.
remember to try to close the nipple before the petal bottoms out so the pedal won't bounce and suck air in. other way is to get the toll that pushes fluid in from the nipple back up to the resivoir. i thik abw make it.

[Morton]

now put a little back in and start bleeding the brake from the nearest whhel firts ie front driver, front passengers, back driver then back passengers.

*cough*

You may want to start at the back left, then work your way forward. Always bleed the furthest wheel from the master cylinder first. This reduces the risk of cross-contamination, and I'm not sure of our master cylinders use a proportioning valve for the rear brake lines - but if they do, then it's probably smarter still to do the rears first

If the car has ABS, it's not so important. Just make sure you do passenger side wheels before driver side wheels.