I recently replaced the front pads, rotors, calipers, and rubber lines on a friends 97 Honda Civic EX. Being the "intelligent" person I am I failed to note the behavior of the pedal before doing the work.

After doing the work I feel as though there is too much travel in the pedal before feeling pressure on the pedal (3"-4" of travel). The pedal begins to harden up about 2" before being completely on the floor. The brakes work fine and have no sponginess or anything once the take up is removed. With the car off though I can pump the pedal once and then have a nice, hard, immediate, constant pressure on the pedal. Turn the car on and then the take up in the pedal returns instantly.

I used a Motive Power Bleeder to push 2 quarts of fluid though the system so I am 95% sure there is no air in the system. Possible exception would be in the master, no clue how it would have got there as the system never ran dry, quick open for hose/caliper swap.

I also had the opportunity to test 4 or 5 other Honda Civics of the same era, one of which I know is properly maintained, and they all have the same pedal feel as what was described above.

Tomorrow I intend to check the adjustment of the rear shoes, one side is adjusted properly but I will still check it. I tried to get them to auto adjust but unsure if it took.

I understand that there is a way to adjust how much take up is in the pedal but wish to confirm that this is the proper way to solve the problem. Has anyone else noticed a significant amount of take up in Honda brake pedals? Or confirm that their similar Civic has similar pedal Behavior?

 

i dunno if its normal or not but my 98 does that too

 

All cars with vacuum-powered power brakes do that. With the engine off there is no vacuum supplied to the brake booster, so no power assist to the brakes. The force on the master cylinder is only what you press on the pedal. Thus the pedal feels firmer, but if you tried to stop the car that way you would have to press very hard on the pedal to actually engage the brakes. The end result in terms of position off the floor would be the same.

 

Not sure if bleed sequence will have the mentioned affect. Some vehicles with diagonally split systems are very sensitive to bleed sequence. Verify the correct bleed sequence was used. The good pedal with the engine off is due to no boost provided in the brake booster when manifold vaccuum is not present.

 

One other point-if the pedal is improved when the emergency brake is applied (rear drum brake equipped vehicles only) the problem is in the rear brake adjustment.