Spongy brakes on Touring

[thumper23]

Hello from the US! (please pardon is my English is a bit...off)
I've just taken delivery of a 90 E30 Touring which I'm very excited about!

In going through the car, the brakes were badly in need of maintenance. The pedal was soft and spongy and the rotors were well past their service limit.
I've gone ahead and ordered pads and rotors (really hoping the US 325iS stuff fits). In the interim, I flushed and bled the brake lines hoping that would solve the spongy brake pedal.

Unfortunately, it hasn't. Myself and the roommie went through and flushed the lines first, then went back and bled the lines. I've heard some instances where the bleed process may need to be done more than once...is that true for these cars?

In the past, when I've encountered a similar problem, the master cylinder was the culprit. Could that be the case here? Does the master cylinder tend to fail in these cars?

If it is the MC, it seems there are two types, either ATE or Girling. How can I determine which one I have?

Thanks!
~mike

[motormanmick]

G'day Mike, link below to wiki on brakes, always start bleeding furthest from the master and bleed till new fluid comes out, then you know you have new fluid through the whole system. Check condition of your rubber hoses, may need replacing.

I believe the procedure for bleeding the cars fitted with ABS differs, worth looking into that, if yours is fitted with ABS.

ATE MC's are clearly market with the ATE circle symbol. cheers.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... oft_Brakes

[Yeti]

just a note if you didnt know when bleeding always start furthest corner away from the master cylinder.

[Brianmoooore]

To answer the OP, spongy brakes can be caused by a faulty MC.

[thumper23]

Thanks gents.

I guess I should have stated that I started from the drivers rear (which is the furthest from the MC), then passenger rear, drivers front, and finally passenger front for bleed order.

And yes, I did stumble across the article on spongy brakes.

I suppose I'll try bleed them again today when I fit new rotors on the car. The rears were backordered.

In the event I do decide to swap out the MC, how can I tell if I have the ATE or the Girling?

[ChrisHC]

This side of the pond we call rotors "discs" and both terms make sense, but something I wonder about, I think in the US you talk of disc brakes, as we do, not rotor brakes, which does seem inconsistent.

[reggid]

in addition to needing a bleed , new hoses or M/C. the guides on the caliper bracket also get worn over time so the caliper can move around a bit making the first part of pedal travel relatively ineffective as the the slack needs to be taken up before pistons can clamp hard. this is more apparent when the pads are worn so new pads make the pedal more linear until they wear again. E30 brakes work but the pedal is pretty hopeless meaning they are not good for transients as there is too much "flex" and distortion for a performance application. A quality aftermarket fixed caliper improves response and modulation in addition to offering better heat management even if it is still constrained to a maximum braking force that is dictated by tyres and vehicle dynamics.