2003 hyundai Santa Fe GLS 2.7 soft pedal
posted before, but can find original.
Anyway, I have a sloshy brake pedal. that's the problem. leading up to this,
but not necessarily the issue, is that a mobile mechanic installed a left side
caliper on the right side (upside down), believing this would not cause a
problem.
A gas station mechanic, thinking the wrongly installed caliper was the issue,
replaced the caliper with the correct one, bled the system, but the brake pedal
is still sloshy.
He said that it must be the master cylinder and wants to replace that. (He said
they visually checked the hoses and found no problem there)
Now, there are no leaks that I can see. there are no engine or brake warning
lights going on.
Question - Is it possible that the master cylinder can malfunction without any
detection by the on-board health monitoring instrumentation? What would
you do to detect the underlying cause
Brake calipers are now reversible if you put the bleeder screw at the top when you turn it upside down to fit other side. Calipers won't make a soft pedal unless it's gushing out brake fluid when you step on the brakes. (Both mechanics are wrong on that one.) Okay, the master cylinder. With engine running, step hard and hold brake pedal. If it's NOT slowly leaking down to the floor in 30 seconds, your master cylinder is probably okay. You just need a good brake mechanic to bleed the system correctly. Usually takes to guys so I'm not sure how your mobile mechanic did that by himself...although it can be done by one person who knows how (me). So have the brakes bled and see what you have. Let us know.
Wow Mark, that is good to know and wonder why no one thought of it earlier. However, this is what was installed. I surmise from the description, "front left" and the picture, that I bought the one in a million that was not reversible.
I guess it would help to show the picture I am referring to
Thanks for the picture. If a caliper is reversible, it can be used on either side but the mechanic has to look/see if he has to remove the bleeder and install it on the top hole so air bubbles can go up and out the bleeder. The brake hose goes to the other hole, near the bottom. This particular part shown says is for the "left" (drivers) side so it's not reversible (just old inventory). So at least you have two new brake calipers and they don't last forever. No money was wasted. Now to bleed the entire system is next.
