Hey everyone
im having a little trouble with my 97 civic (sedan lx all stock)
it is now the summer/spring here and for some reason the brakes are extremely weak! it seems like the pedal goes to the maximum extremely easily but acts as if i just press it slightly. Its especially weird cuz in the winter the brake was ****ING good! when the car was extremely cold it would brake so easily and without barely having to press the pedal.

Is my brake pad worn out or something? or is it sometihng with the break fluid? i really have no knowledge of the brakes so anything helps! thanks a million

 

You probably need a new master cylinder. But check a couple of other things first:

First open the hood and look in the brake fluid reservoir. Is it above the "MIN" line? If it's all gone there's a leak somewhere. Putting more in may or may not restore the operation of the brakes for a time.

Does the parking brake still work? If not the rear brakes could be severely out of adjustment.

After the fluid has run out you may need to purge ("bleed") air out of the lines.

 

Also, how old are your front brake pads? If you feel adventurous, you can lift the front wheel up and take the wheel out and see for yourself, how much pad you have left. There is a little metal piece that starts to squeal letting you know that you need new pads in the front. I'd also check the pads. I have the 98 model and my rear brake shoes still have plenty of life in them.

 

damn i really hope its not the master cylinder bcuz that **** costs like 500$

so i checked the fluid and its at the "min" level, but is it normal that the break fluid is black?? I always thought it was white...
and when you say the front pads make a squeeling noise, when I drive sometimes the breaks will give out a small squeel but like i said, in the cold weather the brakes were functionning perfectly.

thank you very much for the replies, greatly appreciated

 

madmdx,

I've heard that color is only one indicator of weakening brake fluid. if your color is that different (new brake fluid is almost clear), I'd recommend that you go with a bleeding of the brake fluid and fill it up with new fluid. It's a whole lot cheaper than getting a new master cylinder.

If you want instructions, I can give them to you. I did this bleed and refill with new fluid about a year ago and my brakes are strong. My fluid color was nasty black as well.

 

You likely need to flush/bleed the brake hydraulic fluid, replace the brake pads and possibly the brake master cylinder. Also check for fluid leaks at the front calipers and rear wheel cylinders. Save $$$ by doing this work yourself! Get the 96-98 Civic service manual here -- http://hondatech.info/downloads/Auto/Manuals/Civic/

If you have additional questions not covered in the manual, post them here.

 

OK so first ill check the rear brakes to see if maybe they're damaged or something, then bleed the fluid. ill check the manual for that
if that doesnt fix my problem ill probably bring it to a mechanic see if he can tell me for sure if i need to get some pads or a new master cylinder.

thank you very much guys ill keep you posted when i find out what was wrong with it! thanks

 

can you give me the intructions please

 

if you go to the website RonJ linked to, and download the civic EJ6,EJ7 (96-00) manual has good instructions for it.
search "bleeding" in the adobe acrobat file

 

Master cylinder is not that expensive. You need to bleed after installing it. Your car does NOT have ABS, right?