New Brake Pads = No Brakes 😎

Maintenance/Repairs
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Hey everyone, first time posting here. I’m a fairly new self taught mechanic, so don’t bash me too hard haha I’m that typical guy who’s dad wasn’t around to teach me so now I’ve turned to YouTube in my early 30s for instructions :crazy_face:

My Hyundai Tucson had a squishy brake pedal so I replaced the master cylinder and front brake pads (gonna replace the back later) Mind you, this was my first time doing brake maintenance. I followed the advice of numerous tutorial videos and online articles, and the install went rather well… until I tried to drive the car. Yeeaa… pedal went to the floor… no brakes whatsoever. Even at low speeds, that’s was an oh sh** moment :rofl:

Luckily, I steered toward an empty parking spot in my apartment complex and used the parking brake to stop in a parking spot. Talk about feeling bummed out… I was so discouraged in my failure of a brake job that I came inside and took a nap. After waking, I did more research. I learned the caliper piston needs to be closed, or there may be air in the system. So, I’m gonna go check those option now and hopefully redeem myself. Oh yea baby… who won the bonehead of the year award? This guy :muscle:

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Maybe two things. When changing pads, the caliper is emptied, so you have to pump the brakes up a little before driving to refill the calipers.

Master cylinders need to be bench bled before installing, then the whole system bled to remove air. So have them bled or you got a bad unit.

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Brakes are a dangerous first repair to try. I’d have it towed to a brake shop and have them fix it. You likely introduced air into the system that will be hard to remove by a newbie.

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Anytime you open hydraulic brake system on a vehicle with ABS, it requires a scanner to bleed the brakes.

https://www.justanswer.com/car/faccr-bleed-brakes-2008-hyundai-tucson.html

Tester

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Which is why you TEST the pedal before driving away by pushing on it with the engine OFF…high and hard is good… and engine ON lower and a bit softer but NOT to the floor. THEN and only then do you test drive it.

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Thanks for the link, that helps!

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hmmmm … me? … lol … I replaced brake shoes a while ago. After new shoes, new wheel cylinder all looking pristine & good, then drum re-installed, tried to bleed system at the new wheel cylinder. No matter what I did, no brake fluid would ever come out the wheel cylinder bleeder valve. …hmmmm … plenty of fluid in MC … hmmm … oh … Turned out I forgot I had clamped the rubber brake hose at the wheel to prevent leaking during the re-shoe process. Hard to bleed the wheel cylinder when the brake hose is clamped off.

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Haha welcome to the club George :joy:

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