Hi all. I have had a really soft pedal in my 02 Z06 for the year and a half I've owned it. I just replaced all the brakes this weekend with C6 Z06 (EDIT NOT Z06, meant to type z51)calipers, stop tech rotors and braided lines, and Carbotech 1521 pads. I bled them out fully with RBF600 fluid. The pedal feel is slightly improved but not quite what I was hoping for. I still have to press the pedal quite a bit to get it to firm up. From what I've read Corvettes tend to be on the soft side anyway but is there anything else that can be done (or anything that could be WRONG with the system) to improve the pedal feel? I'm certain the system is bled fully.

 

are all of the bleeders on the top?... it's easy to get the calipers mixed up and install them upside down, also did you bleed from the inner bleeder first and then from the outer bleeder?

 

I had to bleed the ever living crap out of my C6Z setup before I got an acceptable pedal. I think I ended up bleeding 3 pints of fluid through before I quit getting micro bubbles with each bleed.

And like Neutron said, bleeders Up, inside then outside, and go with the RR/LF/LR/RF pattern recommended per your year car.

 

As been said (above) spongy brake pedal usually means a bit of air in the lines. Do a re-bleed and get back to us.

 

Yeah we were careful to put the calipers on correctly. I'm going to show some pitiful ignorance here....inner and outer bleeders?? Whaaaat? I bled from the little valve on the caliper itself.

EDIT: also yes we did the pattern as mentioned

 

you need to use a Tech 2 to bleed the air out of the EBCM !!!
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...h-2-bleed.html

 

there are 2 bleeders on the top of each caliper... when looking at it the one you can see nearest you is the outside and there is another parallel to this bleeder on the backside of the caliper... if you only bled one on each wheel that could very well be your problem

 

ahem. did you do z06 or z51 brakes?

 

Z51 fixed error in OP!

 

Aren't you glad I'm watching out for you?

c6 z51 brakes. One bleeder.

oharal swapped out his c5 calipers and rotors for c6 z51, and upgraded from rubber to stainless hoses at the caliper ends.

C6z51 have one bleeder. Use use a normal bleed order.

You can go do some hard stops in sand and activate the ABS, but that is hit or miss. A TechII bleed as Pounder suggests is a more certain way to do it. It'll take a pretty fair amount of fluid by the way.

We used to have a guy named Dadaroo up in your part of the woods with a TechII, but I do not know who to go to up there now.

If you can't find someone with a TechII then either bleed it a hundred more times, or hit the hard stop in the sand a few times. It's still going to take a while.

Air in the ABS valving is problematical, and just takes time to work through. Last time I had the issue it was 3 or 4 TechII bleeds to get rid of.

All that said, while it's probable that you have air in the ABS, you also do want to check that the Master isn't leaking by. Last time I drove your car I found no sign of that, but please do check.

[edit]
Oh, and also make good and darned sure the stainless lines sealed perfectly, and none of the copper washers, if there are any, are letting air in. I had a real problem with the right rear one on my C5 letting air get by.

 

OK, I really try hard to be a DIY guy. I've got a set of braided ss brake lines on the bench.

Do I have to use a Tech II to bleed the brakes and install the new lines?

 

I also installed steel braided lines and gravity bleed each one as I installed them, had a hard pedal but still got air doing the Auto bleed as I sated in the post #6

 

no, I've swapped lines twice on my car and never had to use a tech2... pedal is solid and I've never had an issue with it being soft... just make sure to thoroughly bleed it when you install the lines and you should be good... 3 bottles should be enough, maybe 4 to be on the safe side

 

Got it. I'll look into all these things.

Anyone around Augusta GA or Columbia SC have a techII??

 

not necessarily. Sometimes air comes back up the lines, sometimes you run the master dry bleeding. Can be a lot of different reasons why air gets up in there. Just watch for them while you work.

If you get the pedal hard without it, great. If not, sometimes engaging the abs and bleeding again will get it. And if not.... well, you know what you gotta do.

 

For what it's worth the reason I bought the Tech 2 was to do the Automated Bleed to flush my EBCM of contaminated fluid as that is one of the causes for it's failure !!! My fluid was dark before the bleed and clear after.

 

Is this worth taking to the dealer for a more complete bleed? I guess nobody around me has a TechII...