Spongy brakes

[Grizzly]

Hi all.

I am presently borrowing a 140 sri of a mate while i rebuild my motor after a cam chain incident.

Today i went to pick it up and was shocked how bad the brakes are on it? my brakes will have you kissing the windscreen if you are not careful, this 140's Brakes caused me to panic slightly as i came up behind another car at some lights and nearly took the back end out of it.

I rang the guy who owns it to ask if he has ever thought about putting some new pads in and was told it had had a Full Brake overhaul at Christmas (Pads,Disks,Shoes,Pipes). I went and had a bit of a play with it (bled the brakes etc) and even though the brakes are soft they do work and the sponginess doesn't get worse when you push them and hold it (which kind of eliminates the master Cylinder). I did a bit of reading up and read its possible to be the ABS Module/Pump? if not can you suggest anything else to look at?

Thanks.

 

[vocky]

the early build vectra's had awful brakes, luckily the sri150 is the later build

 

[Grizzly]

Do you know why the later brakes are so much better? You are right though, the car i'm borrowing is a 1999 just pre facelift so it will be the earlier type.

 

[Grizzly]

Are the later parts like the master cylinder etc the same (can be swapped over?) or did they change the mountings on them?

 

[vocky]

I've owned quite a few brand new vec B's and the early one's brakes were always s**te, but I have no idea what they changed to make the later ones better

 

[Hareng]

Resurrect an oldy.

Got a similar problem, whats the signs if master cylinder gone?
Press on the brakes its spongy, press again and its far less spongy.
Other than that brake fluid need replacing, may have absorbed water over the years?

Rear n/s locked on used 1st gear now free so far.
Rear o/s hardly any pressure, the rust from last two months is still on but got a calliper coming.
Booked for MOT Wednesday

 

[Hareng]

Engine not running you can push down on pedal, start engine and goes down further.
Engine running press brake pedal once, 2nd time excellent braking.

Callipers move all round front rear split/bias ok.

 

[Hareng]

Brake pipes from bulk head to callipers, the worst one would have to be the one that goes over petrol tank, no wonder the mechanic laughed as he didnt want to do it.
Exhaust off then petrol tank with £30 in, inaccessable clips every where theres always something in the way, more so on one axle stand and a jack.
Aircon dont work any more, well i never ever used it in 8 years so got the repo saw out, now access to bulkhead unions.
If i had of known even by Monday i would have scrapped the thing.