[Napascott]

Hi, I have on 08 Ridgeline and the other day the brakes started feeling spongy. The abs light flashed and so did the brake light, parking brake. It has 140k so I thought maybe it was time to replace the brake fluid. Bled the lines and installed new fluid. Felt better and was fine for a while. Now they are spongy again and this morning on the way to work the abs, parking and vsa lights all came on, and stayed on. I'm thinking master cylinder? Anyone else have this problem?
PS. The pads and rotors are all about 30K and the brakes were fine until this?
Thanks for any help

 

[Elkhunter]

My guess...three possibilities. Master cylinder, vacuum assist, or check valve in the vacuum assist hose

 

[chiph]

Is the fluid level in the reservoir consistent? ie. not losing fluid?

Chip H.

 

[Flyboy]

My first thought was the master cylinder as well.

 

[larryr]

Was the new brake fluid Dot 3 and from an unopened can. Brake fluid absorbs moisture from the air and that makes the brakes feel mushy.

Did the brake fluid level get low in the master cylinder and get air pumped in the brake lines? Maybe another brake fluid flush is needed.

 

[chiph]

A leak in the brake booster diaphragm can give you spongy brake-feel.

Chip H.

 

[Elkhunter]

I have to admit the Ridgeline brakes feel spongy compared to other vehicles. I've bled the brakes, replaced the master cylinder, replaced the fluid,rotors and pads not too old.when you push the pedal the vehicle stops as it should, but it seems like the braking starts deeper in the pedal press. The booster seems to be working fine.

Anyone know if there is a way to tighten things up a bit?

 

[interpon]

I have to admit the Ridgeline brakes feel spongy compared to other vehicles. I've bled the brakes, replaced the master cylinder, replaced the fluid,rotors and pads not too old.when you push the pedal the vehicle stops as it should, but it seems like the braking starts deeper in the pedal press. The booster seems to be working fine.

Anyone know if there is a way to tighten things up a bit?

exactly experience..wife noticed that..they work but just seems weak on push and long throw

 

[Carsmak]

I have to admit the Ridgeline brakes feel spongy compared to other vehicles. I've bled the brakes, replaced the master cylinder, replaced the fluid,rotors and pads not too old.when you push the pedal the vehicle stops as it should, but it seems like the braking starts deeper in the pedal press. The booster seems to be working fine.

Anyone know if there is a way to tighten things up a bit?

exactly experience..wife noticed that..they work but just seems weak on push and long throw

Only thing I've considered is the few threads where people are upgrading to the slightly larger Honda Pilot or Acura MDX brakes, but I've only seen a few of them done on here.

 

[eurban]

Even new, I found the Ridgeline to have an disturbingly spongy feel to the brakes. I have also had frequent issues with brake pulsation that seems to come back at around 30k miles after brake reworking. Probably a function of the heavy vehicle combined with the nasty stop and go griving that my truck sees daily in the DC metro area.

I have a new set of EBC rotors and pads (ebc Extra duty) waiting to be installed for front and rear. I also have a new set of rebuilt calipers and hangers (front and rear). I also have new braided stainless brake hoses to replace the rubber OEM parts.

If all of the above (with fresh brake fluid) doesn't improve that typical spongy Ridgeline brake feel (as well as improve stopping) then I will cry

 

[interpon]

Even new, I found the Ridgeline to have an disturbingly spongy feel to the brakes. I have also had frequent issues with brake pulsation that seems to come back at around 30k miles after brake reworking. Probably a function of the heavy vehicle combined with the nasty stop and go griving that my truck sees daily in the DC metro area.

I have a new set of EBC rotors and pads (ebc Extra duty) waiting to be installed for front and rear. I also have a new set of rebuilt calipers and hangers (front and rear). I also have new braided stainless brake hoses to replace the rubber OEM parts.

If all of the above (with fresh brake fluid) doesn't improve that typical spongy Ridgeline brake feel (as well as improve stopping) then I will cry

Good luck please keep updated!

 

[Elkhunter]

I haven't bled the abs system, but everything else seems to look fine

 

[Bevski333]

When mine did that it was the caliper sliders that needed to be cleaned up. They develop corrosion after a while and don't slide well causing the sponginess, after i cleaned them up no problems I'm at 213,000 miles now..

 

[Elkhunter]

Resurrection of an old thread with a newer question...has anyone gone to a larger bore master cylinder? Any reason substituting this out won’t work?

 

[Rame Thomas]

Resurrection of an old thread with a newer question...has anyone gone to a larger bore master cylinder? Any reason substituting this out won’t work?

Doing that will basically increase pedal effort but decrease pedal travel, but brake systems are tricky and there are a lot of factors to involve. I really don't know what it would affect in an abs system. I can't answer what it would do on your vehicle, but on a 40 year old car with manual brakes it would work great, but this is brakes we are talking about so if you want change the brake system be prepared to do a lot of research and do a lot of testing in a safe area, and don't take the word of strangers on the internet on if something will work correctly or not.(sometimes the modified brake system works fine till you have to slam them to the floor at 70 mph) Good luck.

 

[Elkhunter]

Doing that will basically increase pedal effort but decrease pedal travel, but brake systems are tricky and there are a lot of factors to involve. I really don't know what it would affect in an abs system. I can't answer what it would do on your vehicle, but on a 40 year old car with manual brakes it would work great, but this is brakes we are talking about so if you want change the brake system be prepared to do a lot of research and do a lot of testing in a safe area, and don't take the word of strangers on the internet on if something will work correctly or not.(sometimes the modified brake system works fine till you have to slam them to the floor at 70 mph) Good luck.

Yeah, I’m not one of those that just blindly does what the internet says. Forty years of scientific consulting experience gets me through the weeds and BS pretty quick. I do, however, trust the opinions of many in this forum and their vast automotive knowledge. If the consensus was that there wasn’t a chance in hell this would work on the Ridgeline, I’d move off on another path. If, however, the general opinions were that it would (or might) work, then I have a path to pursue. Looking for reasearch input

 

[smufguy]

Resurrection of an old thread with a newer question...has anyone gone to a larger bore master cylinder? Any reason substituting this out won’t work?

Honestly, nothing will change with a bigger master cylinder. Zroger could explain things in great details, but with our EBD and abs modulator, braking is not going to be any different unless the brake rotor and caliper hardware is going to be different.
The two BBK systems available for the G1 are designed around using the stock master cylinder.