Honda Odyssey Forum banner
Cancel
Create thread New Garage Forums

Brake pedal travels too far before engaging brakes

1 reading
Jump to Latest
21 - 40 of 50 Posts
#21 ·
oldskewel said:
Foxwell NT520 Pro
Click to expand...
The Foxwell 510 Elite has it, have used it exactly once, it sends a pulse to each circuit.
would expect your higher up model does it as well.

For anyone interested, the foxwell offical store on aliexpress appears to have the best price and free shipping, amazon is typically 75-100 bux more per unit.
 
Discussion starter · #22 ·
Changed front pad (not really needed yet) and found one front caliper pin froze up. I got it loosened up and re-lubed and re-installed. I then went ahead and changed the master cylinder. I bench bled it then I bled each caliper in the order suggested by Honda (front left, front right, rear right, rear left). No change in brake performance after that.... it feels like I have air somewhere. The bleeding process I'm using is a rubber hose on the bleeder screw and it being placed above the caliper and into a container of brake fluid. I have a 2nd person pump the brakes and keep the brake pad held down while I tighten the bleeder screw. We keep the master cylinder full the entire time to not introduce new air.

Any ideas? Is there a need to bleed the ABS unit after changing the master cylinder? I'm about to start bleeding the brakes again ...
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
I just pulled the air filter box to get to the ABS unit. I cracked the incoming lines and pressed the brake to make sure I had oil there. I then planned on cracking the 4 lines coming off of the ABS unit to bleed them there but unfortunately only 1 of 4 would come loose without rounding over (I used a flair wrench and flared crows foot with no success). I then proceeded to bleed the brakes again in the order recommended by Honda and I took a small rubber pallet and tapped the top and sides of the ABS unit to work out any air that might brake free from vibration. After all that, I'm still feeling the same spongy pedal that I started with ....
 
#25 · (Edited)
HoosierMuscle said:
I just pulled the air filter box to get to the ABS unit. I cracked the incoming lines and pressed the brake to make sure I had oil there. I then planned on cracking the 4 lines coming off of the ABS unit to bleed them there but unfortunately only 1 of 4 would come loose without rounding over (I used a flair wrench and flared crows foot with no success). I then proceeded to bleed the brakes again in the order recommended by Honda and I took a small rubber pallet and tapped the top and sides of the ABS unit to work out any air that might brake free from vibration. After all that, I'm still feeling the same spongy pedal that I started with ....
Click to expand...
Just checking here - when you crack open the fittings, you're doing it while the fluid is pressurized, right? I do it with the whole brake system pressurized using the Motive pressure bleeder. But having a helper with a foot on the brake will do it as well, just less conveniently and reliably. They need to be pressing on the pedal during the whole time between you cracking open the fitting, and closing it back up. Sorry if that is obvious.

Not sure what to do about being unable to get fittings loosened. Get a better wrench, that fits tightly on all 5 corners (flare wrench), perhaps yours is not as tight as it should be? I know it's a solid piece of steel, but it may not have been designed or manufactured with sufficient accuracy.

Good move on the tapping with rubber mallet - no harm, and might help.
 
#27 ·
HoosierMuscle said:
After all that, I'm still feeling the same spongy pedal that I started with ....
Click to expand...
If you don't have a tool to activate the ABS electronically... go find a patch of dirt/gravel and do it 'manually' by braking hard enough for an ABS activation.

A good ABS activation will 'bleed' the master and allow you to get any air pockets out of the ABS unit, if present.

That's what worked on my old 4Runner since I don't have anything that can activate the ABS unit on that. Haven't needed it on my Odyssey, but I do have a Foxwell scanner to do it the 'right' way on it.

-Charlie
 
  • Like
Reactions: HoosierMuscle and oldskewel
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
Discussion starter · #28 · (Edited)
phattyduck said:
If you don't have a tool to activate the ABS electronically... go find a patch of dirt/gravel and do it 'manually' by braking hard enough for an ABS activation.

A good ABS activation will 'bleed' the master and allow you to get any air pockets out of the ABS unit, if present.

That's what worked on my old 4Runner since I don't have anything that can activate the ABS unit on that. Haven't needed it on my Odyssey, but I do have a Foxwell scanner to do it the 'right' way on it.

-Charlie
Click to expand...
You sir are the Grand Prize Winner. I had my wife lock up the brakes on a gravel road yesterday and it didn't help. I am a bit more aggressive... I did it today and BOY DO THESE BRAKES FEEL BRAND NEW! If you are in Jackson, TN tonight I'll treat you to Texas Roadhouse. I'm on cloud 9 now that I have this fixed. I do have a fairly good OBD scanner that I've used to bleed the ABS on my Silverado but it didn't give me the option on the Odyssey.

I'll update the original post with all that I did and what was the final solution to hopefully help others.
 
#29 ·
That procedure to activate ABS should have activated it to mix fluid (and air if it exists) within the ABS system with the rest of the brake system. Good to do to allow more complete flushing and bleeding. As said above, that would allow any air in the ABS block to escape, allowing a subsequent flushing / bleeding procedure to get it completely out of your system.

But I don't think it should have instantly fixed your problem (as your post seems to suggest happened) unless your ABS has / had an actual problem. It could be that somehow your ABS had been locked in a partially open state, causing the soft pedal, and by activating it you allowed it to get back as it should be, firming the pedal.

If it were my car, I would buy an OBD2 tool that can activate ABS, and thoroughly use it to flush and test the ABS system. Could be that a lot of exercise can get it going as it should.

But if you do nothing, it could be that you'll have this problem again at some point.
 
#30 ·
I too have battled a spongy pedal on my 2012 Honda Odyssey TE (odometer 220K). The brake system had been flushed by dealer (nasty fluid) and pedal improved but slowly over the course a several months gotten worse. I seem to recall watching a youtube video "One Way to Deal with a Spongy Brake Pedal - EricTheCarGuy" where he mentions having to do this for Honda when he was a tech that had a spongy pedal after proper bleeding. Eric mentioned that for some Honda's going out to an unpopulated area and locking the brakes up seems to firm the pedal up.

I recently went out and tried it myself on a gravel road and it did improve the pedal feel.

@oldskewel Thoughts about this? If the system had air in the ABS/VSA then activating it would just move the air down the line right? Why would it firm the pedal up, then get spongy again unless like you mentioned above leaky internal issue?

Not sure if linking to YT is allowed but here it is:
 
#31 ·
Stauffer said:
I too have battled a spongy pedal on my 2012 Honda Odyssey TE (odometer 220K). The brake system had been flushed by dealer (nasty fluid) and pedal improved but slowly over the course a several months gotten worse. I seem to recall watching a youtube video "One Way to Deal with a Spongy Brake Pedal - EricTheCarGuy" where he mentions having to do this for Honda when he was a tech that had a spongy pedal after proper bleeding. Eric mentioned that for some Honda's going out to an unpopulated area and locking the brakes up seems to firm the pedal up.

I recently went out and tried it myself on a gravel road and it did improve the pedal feel.

@oldskewel Thoughts about this? If the system had air in the ABS/VSA then activating it would just move the air down the line right? Why would it firm the pedal up, then get spongy again unless like you mentioned above leaky internal issue?

Not sure if linking to YT is allowed but here it is:
Click to expand...
I tried this ABS activation hack to resolve my squishy pedal but it did not have any impact on pedal feel. How fast were you going when you activated ABS and roughly how many seconds did you keep the ABS active? I could only get about 3 seconds of ABS activation because I could not find a gravel road anywhere near my house and had to use a gravel parking lot instead.
 
#32 ·
Rumboogy1 said:
I tried this ABS activation hack to resolve my squishy pedal but it did not have any impact on pedal feel. How fast were you going when you activated ABS and roughly how many seconds did you keep the ABS active? I could only get about 3 seconds of ABS activation because I could not find a gravel road anywhere near my house and had to use a gravel parking lot instead.
Click to expand...
Did you bleed the brakes after doing the ABS activation? The air is still in the system, just in an 'accessible' place now...

-Charlie
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#33 ·
No I did not. I was not sure if my short bursts on the ABS would be enough to eject any bubble from the unit. I had actually ordered an OBD2 scanner that supports the "ABS bleeding" capability. But is is on a slow UPS truck which is why I tried the gravel road method first. I guess I would like to have some confidence any bubble was out of the ABS block before I go through the chore of bleeding again. Hence I asked about the duration of the ABS activation.
 
#34 ·
The OEM shop manual for my 05 TL says "if pedal is still soft after bleeding, go out and perform 2 ABS activated stops. Then perform another brake bleed".

I'm having a similar problem on that car but have yet to do this stupid double bleed.
 
#35 ·
94eg! said:
The OEM shop manual for my 05 TL says "if pedal is still soft after bleeding, go out and perform 2 ABS activated stops. Then perform another brake bleed".

I'm having a similar problem on that car but have yet to do this stupid double bleed.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Here is what I tried. I went out and did about 6 ABS activated stops on gravel. Each one lasted about 3 seconds of ABS operation. I had ordered a Foxwell OBD2 scanner with "ABS bleed" mode so I waited for that to arrive. I ran the Foxwell and then did another brake bleed. This still did not solve the problem - brakes are as squishy as ever.
 
#37 ·
Rumboogy1 said:
Interesting. Here is what I tried. I went out and did about 6 ABS activated stops on gravel. Each one lasted about 3 seconds of ABS operation. I had ordered a Foxwell OBD2 scanner with "ABS bleed" mode so I waited for that to arrive. I ran the Foxwell and then did another brake bleed. This still did not solve the problem - brakes are as squishy as ever.
Click to expand...
I had mine bled/flushed at the dealer under warranty and it did nothing for my pedal. The only thing that made a difference was switching the pads out. Every since I did that, I haven't had a squishy pedal and it actually stops and feels like it should stop normally.
 
#38 ·
This ^^^
I'm on semi metallics all around now (rockauto cheapies) and the van stops solid now.

everybody raves about them, but im not impressed with the akebono ceramics lifespan or stopping performance for these heavy vehicles.
have the akebono's on other small vehicles in the fleet and no issues.

went through multiple sets of pulsation and poor braking performance on the van, to realize brake dust and better braking are worth it.
 
#39 ·
2011.2017.odyssey said:
This ^^^
I'm on semi metallics all around now (rockauto cheapies) and the van stops solid now.

everybody raves about them, but im not impressed with the akebono ceramics lifespan or stopping performance for these heavy vehicles.
have the akebono's on other small vehicles in the fleet and no issues.

went through multiple sets of pulsation and poor braking performance on the van, to realize brake dust and better braking are worth it.
Click to expand...
I slapped on the Element3s and really like them. I did leave the stock rotors on so I am getting some shudder when hard braking at high speeds so I ended up getting new Raybestos rotors and new Element3 pads so they’re both brand new. I’ll keep the 3s I currently have on as spares but yeah. First time a pad slap has gotten me. Never not made it until now.
 
#40 ·
I'm running the later 2016 rotors (centric premium) on my 2012 with centric posi-quiet "extended wear" semi-metallic. Pedal feel is good. Only noticeable weirdness is they tend to creek just as you come to a very slow stop (like creeping into the garage). Just replaced these pads the other day. Simple pad-slap and brief bed-in.

Strange thing is OEM pads in a 12 MDX make the exact same creek sound.
 
21 - 40 of 50 Posts
About this Discussion
49 Replies
15 Participants
Last post:
MPGenie
Honda Odyssey Forum
posts
1.1M
members
432K
Since
2000
Odyclub community is the #1 forum to discuss all things Honda Odyssey: minivans, safety, service maintenance, mods, and more.
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
2005 - 2010 Odyssey 2011 - 2017 Odyssey 1999 - 2004 Odyssey 2018+ Odyssey Problems and Concerns