So I recently refurbed some rear calipers for my car and when I replaced the pistons I wound them all the way in so they were flush with the dust cover.

I had them fit yesterday and got the breaks bled.

now my peddle travel has increased by at least an inch and feels spongy but firms up with pressure.

having looked at the calipers that came off the piston is approx 5mm proud of the dust cover.

Would this cause the longer peddle travel?

I plan to re bleed the brakes at the weekend and while I do I'll check the piston clearance and wind it out if needed.

Try this; push the pedal down as hard as you can then pull the handbrake on hard. Release pedal then HB. Repeat.

 

Any better?

Done. Repeated approx 30 times.

No significant improvement.

There are 2 bleed nipples on the master cylinder try them, cured mine.

You will need to wind out the pistons so they are a nice snug fit over the brake pads,if they are wound all the way back into the caliper then thats your problem.

How did you bleed the brakes? did you use a Ezibleed type pressure bleeder?

How did you bleed the brakes? did you use a Ezibleed type pressure bleeder?

I got my local indy to fit the calipers and bleed the brakes as I don't have the space to do this at home. I'm going to a friends house who has a nice flat drive to do it myself with his help tomorrow hopefully.

I would have thought a mechanic would know to wind the pistons out a bit so im guessing there maybe some air in the system then. I thought you had fitted them yourself,let us know how you get on. 

Try this; push the pedal down as hard as you can then pull the handbrake on hard. Release pedal then HB. Repeat.

Any better?

I've continued doing this throughout the day and I think there has been a slight improvement.

I recently had to have both of my rear callipers replaced as they were binding following a complete disc and pad replacement. My mechanic is a top bloke and despite his assurances that the brakes were ok, I still felt that there was too much travel in the brake pedal. He bled the system again but they still didn't feel right to me. He had also changed the brake fluid when he replaced the rear callipers in case it had boiled the brake fluid due to the brakes binding.

I used one of these to bleed the system, ensuring that they were bled in the correct sequence and I had a quite a bit of air come out of the front offside bleed nipple. I now have a firm brake pedal. Not sure if it will cure your problem but it worked for me. Good luck.

Quick update.

Never got round to bleeding the brakes at the weekend as I was too busy having a fight with my shower and consumer unit....which I lost.

Brakes feel so much better now though so I'm thinking it was just bedding in again?

Peddle travel has improved so much now that it is better than before and spongy feeling is totally gone.

Feel a bit silly now.

I've always wound rear calipers all the way back before fitting. You get a spongy pedal for a bit but the whole point of them is that they self adjust back out to their final position. At least I thought that was the case, no need to unwind them.

Looks like yours just took a bit longer to sort themselves out, usually only takes a trip around the block.