94 Civic brake problems, HELP !!

Hi,,,wonder if anyone had any ideas..My daughter has a 94 civic, every once in
a while the brakes basically fail...She said that she pushes the brake peddle
to the floor and nothing happens... She hits them a couple of more times and
they start working. I bled the brakes yesterday and got no air out of the
lines and pumped them through till I got nice clean fluid. Test drove with no
problems...Later the same thing happened.. THe car has what looks like a new
Master cylinder. I am going to replace the Master cylinder nonetheless, unless
anyone else has any ideas...Thanks in advance for any help...

Scott in Florida
Scott Watson
D-19166 BJDS#5
SL and IAD JM and I

The closest I ever got to a 4.0 in college was my blood alcohol content.

 

I think you've got it, it sounds like your master cylinder has gone bad.
Those goes for about $40 at autozone with core. I'm not sure how much it is
for an OE one but I've never had any problems with parts that I've bought
from autozone or advance autoparts. Others may disagree and opt for the
higher OE parts.

 

Is there any relationship with vaccum leak in the vaccum tubings? Have a
look.

 

it could be the Mast. cyl. or as in the case of my car(not a honda), a
93 taurus), front disc. back wheels drums), and my brake pedal would go
to the floor sometimes.. it seemed to do it when i would drive to work..
about 20 minutes in city driving the brake would go to the floor.. pump
up the pedal and it would catch.... first thought was the seals inside
the master cylinder were bad and letting fluid pass by the seal when
hitting the brake, but not leaking at all.. was preparing the change out
the Mast. cylinder, but thought hey why not just change out the pads and
shoes on the car while at it... removed the passenger rear wheel drum
and applied the brakes lightly and found that the metal thats attached
to the wheel cylinders were coming out and not going back in when you
take your foot off the brakes, the metal rod that goes to the brake shoe
was not making contact and was bypassing the brake shoe(thus allowing
the fluid to flow into the rear wheel cyl. and the pedal would go to the
floor(guess it was on both rear brakes???) it seemed the brake springs
on this car were shot and the heat was building up and not letting them
pull the shoes back when the brake pedal was released.... the cure was
for $5.00 at auto zone a new brake kit(containing all the springs, about
4 or 6 springs????)..... completed the back brakes and never did the
master cylinder as the problem was fixed.... might be your problem
also???? do you have rear brake drums???????
hope this helps.

 

remember the problem with the pedal going to the floor is spring related
and it is caused by the heat relationship to the brake springs being old
and the heat go to the metal... so if the car is cold and it works ok
then it will not show the signs of the springs loosing tension......
just had to add this,, hope it helps.

 

I had this happen when a rear brake drum cylinder sprung a leak. It
bled fine, and I didn't even see fluid until I opened up the drum.

Nate