Please Help me Urgent Not safe to drive

[m7x3r]

Hey guys,

I have had a hell of a week, and I spent just over 1000 dollars on parts and labour and still nothing all that money and effort to something stock nothing out of the ordinary no bigger kit nothing all stock parts all the usual stuff...


So it started off my clutch pedal got really loose barely made it to the mechanic turned out my clutch master cylinder is bad... so replaced that bleeded the clutch no problem...

Asked the mechanic to flush out the fluid and bleed the brakes as well looks like the wrong fluid was in there which screwed everything up looks like ATF was in my brake resvoir ( very sadly...

So we sucked everything out tried to bleed the brakes we got one side working but not the other side as you know brakes work in X formation so front passenger with rear driver and front driver with rear passenger... by the way i have a GS so it comes with 4 brakes

mechanic changed the brake master the proportional valve on the firewall that splits the lines between rear and front brake lines... still no good not bleeding properly got another one thinking the master cylinder was defective ... mechanic gave up on it after the second master cylinder

So i took it to mazda I got them a third brand new master cylinder the dealership also had a very hard time bleeding the entire brake system... eventually we got all 4 to brake somehow magically not sure how

so I leave with my car all happy and out of nowhere i noticed that my car is slowing down as if i have the brakes on....

sure enough after driving a bit i started smelling the brakes being burned against the rotors....

took it back replaced all calipers thinking the rubber seals inside are bad so i got brand new (rebuilt) calipers all around with brand new pads at the front.... so now my entire system is brand new everything nothing else left ... except for the brake lines which are fine because oil came out of every bleeder so the lines are okay the front caliper brake lines are SS. as oppose to the back ones which are still rubber... and the brake booster is the only thing that wasn't changed...

So why the heck are my brakes jamming up on me while i drive after leaving mazda yesterday and after changing all the calipers it was fine ... today i am driving it seems to start jamming up after the car gets a bit hot or after heavy braking ... the only thing i can think off is my brake boaster rod or the master cylinder not decompressing and locking up the brakes to be in brake position

specially when i touch the pedal it's soo hard as if someone stepping on the brake pedal or when your car is off your brake pedal is hard because no vacume system is on .....

so please can anyone help me figure this out i am going crazy about to throw this car i have had enough i spent soo much on it already over 8 thousand since 2003 and now in just one week i spent just over a thousand in parts and labour

seems once the car cools off a bit not necessarily the engine at least if the brakes cool off a bit you turn it back on and the brakes are fine again pedal has a normal feeling and they're not jamming up and car rolls just fine in nutural as if they were never jamming up ... please any ideas .. please help

[mitmaks]

Sorry to say it but if trans fluid was in your brake fluid your whole brake system is bad and needs to be changed. Only thing that is still usable is stock steel brake lines. Trans fluid ruins seals inside brake system.

[m7x3r]

thanks for your reply but I thought I changed everything what else is there that's not changed I changed:

brake master cylinder
proportional valve
calipers

what else is there to change

[Inodoro Pereyra]

If your brake pedal is hard to push when the engine is running you should check your vacuum at the booster input, and if you have good vacuum, replace the booster.
About the brakes sticking, are all four rotors getting jammed, or just one? If it's all four, see if fixing the booster issue fixes that. If it's only one, replace the line (the WHOLE line) to that caliper.

[m7x3r]

I agree with Pereyra

because not all 4 are jamming and I just checked it now the brakes seem fine... I have a feeling that it's a vaccum since i hear a whistling noise coming from the engine somewhere like a vaccume leak somewhere on top of that the booster was never changed but everything else in my brake system was changed and oil was coming through to every bleeder on ever caliper so the lines are not clogged.. now if i change the booster would i need to bleed the system again... i am gonna try to look for any loose vacume hoses mind you I have a KLZE in there so it's a better different than the K8 i need an MX3 expert to look at this i wasted 500 bux by going to Mazda dealership and they were as good as your local mechanic down the street no special knowledge or expertise on our cars since it's a bit old

[m7x3r]

Sorry forgot to ask what's the best way to look for vaccum leaks or check for vaccum issues i am pretty sure that's my problem i hear a hissing whistling noise and my idle gets a bit funky so i know i have some issues with my vaccum system what's the best way to figure out the leak or vaccum problem as to where it's coming from just spray some water ???

[umcamara]

Sorry forgot to ask what's the best way to look for vaccum leaks or check for vaccum issues i am pretty sure that's my problem i hear a hissing whistling noise and my idle gets a bit funky so i know i have some issues with my vaccum system what's the best way to figure out the leak or vaccum problem as to where it's coming from just spray some water ???

Disconnect the electrical harness from the Idle Air Control Valve, and spray throttle body cleaner or release propane around suspected leak points with the engine running. Look for the idle to jump up.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Ok, you're contradicting yourself a little.
If all 4 brakes are jamming, it MAY be vacuum/booster related. There's NO WAY a vacuum/booster problem can cause a partial brake jam.

To test your vacuum, you need to connect a vacuum gauge to your intake plenum, WITHOUT disconnecting any vacuum line (you should have at least one plugged vacuum port you an use.
With the engine at normal operating temperature, you should get a fairly steady reading between 17 and 22 inches Hg.
If you have the correct reading, disconnect the vacuum gauge from the port, plug it back, disconnect the vacuum line on the brake booster, connect the gauge to it, and repeat the same test. If you have the same reading, replace the booster. If you read no vacuum, check the hose and the port it's connected to, as one of them should be clogged.

[m7x3r]

okay i am pretty sure all 4 are jamming up since i saw smoke from all 4 and all 4 had burning smell on top of that i just drove home from work and wen i come to a stop my idle is as high as 1 rpm they are not always jamming i just drove home fine now but my idle is wiered and at first wen i started the car wen engine is cold car is stutttering so bad it sounds like it is about to die or stall but once it is warmed up it is idling quite high i never had that issue before the break problem and i never played around with idle control valve on the throttle body


sorryy if i am a little native and uneducated but what is an intake plenum ?? MAF !!

[m7x3r]

they are jamming again my pedal feels as hard as when the car is off except it is on i dont see anything wrong with the hose to the booster it plugs rite into the throttle body just after the butterfly on the intake manifold there are so many vaccume lines everywhere but they all seem connected i am really scared to keep driving the car like this i ll try and get a new booster i donno wat else it could be i need an expert to look at it mazda dealership charged me so much and still didnt fix my problem just shoot me now i feel like crying ...but thank you all for your support

[Inodoro Pereyra]

sorryy if i am a little native and uneducated but what is an intake plenum ?? MAF !!

Don't worry. Sorry I assumed you knew.
The "big tube" between the throttle body and the six "small tubes" (the intake runners) going to the cylinders is the intake plenum. Most people refer to it as the "intake manifold", but in reality the intake manifold is the whole plenum+runners combo.

I would NOT recommend you to drive the car like that. Best case scenario, you may have to replace your rotors and pads. Worst case scenario, you may get killed. Do what you have to do to fix the problem, and meanwhile, keep safe.

Also, don't cry. It solves nothing, and gets you dehydrated in the process...

[m7x3r]

hahaha thanks ... well i just replaced my calipers and pads at the front ... i found a junkyard booster for 50 bux i am willing to grab i hope it's a vacuum problem if anyone is in the toronto area and is willing to help me out i paid enough to mazda dealership service guys and i am still running into problems... i disconnected the vacuum hose to the booster and plugged it back in i donno if that helped at all there is only one and i hope it's in the right spot on the KLZE since i had the K8 originally goes right on top of the throttle body just after the butterfly.. i really can't figure it out i am not an expert on this and this engine is so complicated i don't know where to begin i'll try and get a booster and have it changed from the guy who swapped my KLZE in and have him check the all the vacuum hoses and hope for the best but I just replaced all my brake parts calipers pads proportional valve master cylinder i donno why it's acting up this way... sometimes it jams and it sometimes it's fine but over all the pedal feels a bit harder than normal .... i really need someone to look at it who knows his stuff on the KZLE and MX3's in general i wish a veteran in the GTA would come forward

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Get a NEW booster. Again, brakes are not something you want to save money on, and, with all the money you've already spent on it, going cheap on the booster makes no sense.
The booster hose is fairly rigid, so there's not so many places you can hook it up to. I really never paid attention to where it goes, but behind the TB sounds good.
You can get the Haynes manual for the MX-6, or the Millenia, as they both use the same engine.

[m7x3r]

thanks for all the support pereyra i have no choice even mazda dealership doesn't have a brake booster they have to order it from japan and guess what ... they quoted me for 908 dollars and it will take about 2 weeks to get here since it's coming from japan or somewhere from the US so junkyard was my only choice and i was lucky to find one in all of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area)

but i'll get one and have it replaced... btw to add to the great news i just went to get gas after filling up my car won't turn on .. it won't even crank my battery is fairly new and i had charge and all in it ... but what gave it away is that it won't even crank i just hearing a humming noise when i press the clutch and crank it .. tried boosting it with jumper cables nothing... so i figured it's my starter.. luckily this is not the first time i had this incident happened before so i bought a new starter but then magically again my car started on its own fine... so i kept it in case my current one finally dies out... so now that it's not starting unless i push start it and pop the clutch and that's how i made it home turned it off turned back on and same thing nothing.... so i'll try to put the new starter motor in and make sure it's got a good ground and go from there... again thank you for all the support i'll provide an RFO to my jamming brakes problem if and when i get one seems to be fine now it's another on/off issue..

[Inodoro Pereyra]

thanks for all the support pereyra i have no choice even mazda dealership doesn't have a brake booster they have to order it from japan and guess what ... they quoted me for 908 dollars and it will take about 2 weeks to get here since it's coming from japan or somewhere from the US so junkyard was my only choice and i was lucky to find one in all of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area)

Look here:

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframe ... autoforums

They have the booster (Cardone part # 532548) for $138.79 (minus $30 if you send them the core) +shipping.

And you're welcome. Glad I could help.