98 Subaru Forester Brake Issues

[amishbearcrimes]

So here's how this stuff got started;

 

Car has a slight wobble, get it checked out while out of town, they say it may just need an alignment but it's inconsistent so they don't know what's going on. Get about halfway back from a couple hundred mile road trip and the wobble has gotten more consistent but when I get it checked out they still can't figure it out. Get an alignment. It still wobbles, but now it's worse. Finally get home and get it to a mechanic friend and he immediately diagnoses it as a seizing caliper. We get new calipers, rotors and brakes, just to be safe.

 

Well we change all of these and bleed the brakes.

 

The first time we bleed them it doesn't work, air in the lines. Okay I'm new at this, maybe it's me.

 

We bleed them again.

 

This time they work, but I have to push the pedal three times to build pressure.

 

First time no reaction, second a slight reaction, third time it brakes like it should: like it has brand new brakes.

 

It wouldn't build pressure at all if it were the master cylinde, would it? I'm so baffled and I don't want to take her to a shop if this is something I can do myself.

 

My friend thinks it may be the ABS system itself.

 

I'm really stumped.

[mikaleda]

I don't remember the order exactly, but Subaru abs bleed procedure is wierd. I think it goes right rear, left front, left rear and right front. I'm not positive, though its been a while since I've had to bleed a system with abs.

[idosubaru]

*** is the "wobble" gone now that you did that work?

 

1.  still air in the lines - this seems most likely given you just had the system all apart. 

Subaru ABS is simple and should be a non-issue regarding this.

 

This seems unlikely but the second possibility is a leak somewhere.   most common sneaky leaks are the rear lines that snake across the top of the gas tank.  they can leak brake fluid and never be seen.  you'll have limited brake pressure.  eventually the leak will be bad enough that enough fluid collects on top the tank and then runs down or the hole blows out big enough to make a visible mess under the vehicle.

 

subaru master cylinder, ABS, and booster failures are so rare you'd be throwing parts and wasting time/money to just guess on those without a very specific diagnosis/suspicion. 

[Fairtax4me]

Did you replace all 4 calipers?

Did you bleed all 4 calipers?

[gravitate]

Its

passenger front

driver rear

driver front

passenger rear

[gbhrps]

amishbearcrimes,

 

Are the calipers correctly mounted to the correct wheels, such that the bleed screws are at the top of the caliper? If two of the calipers were swapped side to side, the bleed screws will be on the bottom and you never will get the air out of the calipers. (Fixed this same issue on a guy's Jeep where he had swapped the front calipers side to side.)