The left front brake caliper was siezed up on my truck. Both calipers looked pretty rough so I replaced both of them and put new pads on. Now the left one seems like it's sticking a little again. Also alot of times my brake pedal feels like trying to mash a concrete block for a few seconds then it softens up. I bled the brakes until no bubbles were coming out when I put the new calipers on. The hard pedal issue was there before I installed the new calipers. Could this be a vacuum pump problem? The pully on the vacuum pump looks pretty rough, looks like rust and a lot of gunk on it, I was thinking of taking it off and cleaning it up to see it that helped any. Thoughts?

 

Sounds like it could be vacuum, or a booster issue. Pull a vacuum line off and see how hard it grabs your finger when you stick it on the end, it should have a definite suction.

Another thought, you could try pulling the vacuum line off the booster, and stepping on the brake pedal to see if it feels any different too, might give you another indication.

 

Okay, I'll try those. As far as one caliper feeling like it's sticking, I figured that out. It seems that if you put a brake pad on backwards to where the metal side of the pad is contacting the rotor, they don't work very well! I'm such an idiot!

 

Ummm? ouch for the rotor? Did it damage it to much?

 

It's probably gonna need replaced but it has to work long enough for me to drive it to autozone tomorrow to get a new one! That's what happens when I try to work on something while watching thee kids!