I've seen this issue around and I'm not sure how consistent it is between vehicles. I've seen this issue with everything but Cherokees. Lol.

Anyways. I replaced my rotors and pads. I had to rebuild the right caliper because the piston seal had a tear in it. But rebuild I mean I replaced the two seals in it since there's not much else. Replaced the fluid while I was at it. I bled the system until nothing but fluid was coming out.

Since then the brakes didn't feel all that powerful? For lack of a better word. I can stop the thing when I really need to but I have to force the pedal to the floor.

The pedal is easier to push with the engine on than off.

No leaks as far as I can tell since the fluid level isn't going down.

I drained the system by just pumping the brakes until all the fluid was gone then refilling it with new fluid. Even though I bled the brakes until only fluid came out, could there still be air trapped somewhere?

 

Congratulations! You pumped the master dry and have air trapped in the system.

 

You'll have to disconnect and bench bleed the master cylinder. Can't do it with the lines attached.

 

Back to square one....

http://www.wikihow.com/Bleed-Car-Brakes

 

Lol thanks guys. Guess its better learning from experience.

 

Heck yes. None of us was born with wrenching knowledge.

 

Mechanic just bled the master cylinder and he said no air came out. So I'll re-bleed the brakes and see if some residual air comes out that didn't come out last time.

 

Is the pedal still hard to push down? If so you may want to make sure that the check valve that is located on the brake booster and hosed to the intake manifold is in good shape. When that check valve goes bad the brake pedal will be hard to push.

 

Its not really hard to push down. I guess my wording was bad. What I was trying to get across is that theyre not spongy. Pedal acts "fine". Just doesn't seem to have the stopping power that I had before the brake job. Im probably being overly sensitive.

 

All pads are not created equal. Just drive it a while!

 

Have you adjusted up the rear shoes?

 

Ok, that is a little clearer. It can actually be a few things. The rear need to be adjusted, type of pads, brand of pads, even when you had them installed you got some grease on them. Even if you have grease on only one will cause you to not have stopping power.

 

It takes a while for the pads to seat in on the rotors. The worst thing you can do is hard braking and getting the pads too hot. Give it couple hundred miles and avoid panic stops, let the pads seat.

 

Which pads. If you put a set of metallic pads on they are for high speed and still brake when hot. They sometimes don't work so good around town. Ask me how I know. I use mid range semi metallic.

 

The pads are performance friction. Not sure what kind of pad they are without looking them up.

I've already put 1000 miles on them. I'll adjust the drums in the back and see if it helps.

If I did get grease on the rotors/pads, would it just wear away after time or would I have to clean them thoroughly?