brake fluid boil?

[Happy Face]

I've just completed the brake system rebuild on my car. This afternoon I took her out for the first time just to see how it felt. With new pads, I thought it might be a good idea to 'seat' the pads.

after 30 min or so of hard braking, I began to notice a bit of softness to the pedal....and also smelled something (kind of electrical smell, maybe it was the new front pads though - metal masters).

anyway, came home , took a look at the new front calipers and notices 'wet' spots around the caliper threads in the picture above. Also say one or two tiny bubbles showing up there.

Any cause for worry?

[Guest Anonymous]

Well for starters you dont seat the pads by doing just hard brakeing for 30min. In most cases it takes 5 min (8-10 hard aplacations) to get them started then normal driving. You very well may have boiled the fluid with the driving you described. First check to make sure its brake fluid and not somthing elce. A soft peddel is due to over heating or a leak but you dont have to loose fluid to get a soft peddel. Depending on who did the brake calipers you either exceded the calipers seal streigth, poor quality parts or just a bad one. try in the shop to MAKE it bleed out of those spots. I would sugest a quick cleaning and rebleed of the brakes to see whats going on. is it somthing to be concerned about... I dont know is stoping important to you

Sam

[Happy Face]

In most cases it takes 5 min (8-10 hard aplacations) to get them started then normal driving.

I should have been more explicit, but that's exactly what I did. It was a 30 minute drive around the block....but about 8-10 hard applications during that drive

[john_a]

>>> took a look at the new front calipers and notices 'wet' spots around the caliper threads in the picture above. Also say one or two tiny bubbles showing up there.

I doubt that the wetness you saw at the bolt holes was from brake fluid.

Those calipers look like commercial rebuilds, they likely had some rust-inhibitor coating on them. First time they got really hot, some of that oily residue from the coating that had wicked into the bolt thread area "boiled" out.

Metal Masters should get driven a while before bedding in, to allow time for the pad material to conform to the rotor (even when both are new, the pads won't be in uniform contact.) If you do the brake burnish before the high contact points are worn level, those spots become harder than the surrounding material & stay that way (causes a poor wear pattern.)

Brakes look great!