Just venting here because it is in the hands of my local Honda dealer but how does this sound to you? I just got my (new to me) 2008 Accord V-6 EX-L beautiful car, 22,000 miles, about 3 weeks ago and notice fluid all over the back wheel well inside the wheel and on the side of the wheel. I call Honda and they said to bring it in. They tell me that the left rear caliper has a blown seal and they end up ordering two new rear calipers and pads. After installation, I notice that the pedal is really soft and the emergency brake lever comes up really high, so I have my wife bring it back as the brakes still worked, just the pedal was soft. They bleed the system and she gets in and the pedal is still soft along with the high E-brake. They after some convincing and comparing to other new cars agree and keep the car.

They call me today and say that they believe the master cylinder is blown and is letting air into the system. Now they have to order the part (another day) and they said they won't know until they replace the part. I have never heard of a car with 22,000 miles on it blowing the Master cylinder. Does this sound right?

 

Doesn't sound right, but it IS under warranty.

If it was out of warranty & I were fixing it myself, I'd almost suspect it wasn't bled properly. Or (since the MC probably got air inside) the MC has to be pumped to get rid of air hanging out IN the MC.

 

Yes it does not sound right to me either. At one point the service writer said that somehow they think that the tech that changed the brake calipers got air in the lines and that blew the MC. How can air blow the MC? You just need to get the air out and all will be fine. Am I crazy? I thought you just needed to get the air out and with parts as new as these there should be no problems.

 

Yeah, I think so too. When you get air into the MC it can be a real PITA to bleed it all out again, but that's not the same as "blowing" the MC.

If I was working on my own car, I'd keep working to remove the air from the MC. If I was a dealer who has to bill my time back to warranty, I'd really think about replacing the MC rather than spending hours bleeding it. Honda might disallow the big labor charge, but they might allow a warranty replacement.

There's a joke about that... You know you're an engineer if you spend 8 hours trying to fix a $20 part.

 

It is a dealership, so they should have experienced mechanics.

I wonder if they installed the calipers on the wrong side? The bleeder valve would be pointing down if they did that.

 

One of my points to the dealer was that the mechanic that worked on it all day on Monday might not be the right guy for the job. We might need to get another guy for the job. He of course told me that this guy has worked there for several years blah, blah, blah. Hopefully they will be able to repair this "mysterious" issue by today after the parts come in.

 

I wonder if that dealership has seen, and done this. It seems some callipers were installed with the pins wrong. They also added the little V clip to push the pads away from the rotor.

 

unless the master was totally empty of fluid and so were the lines ,, you cannot get air to brake master ( gravity force) ,,
No offense to any service adviser out there ,, but most service adviser do not know much about cars ,they are basically sales person , they tell you what sounds acceptable so you won't get too angry ..not too many customer are mechanical inclined , so most accept what adviser tells them,

 

The problem sounds like a caliper problem related to the parking brake. Way back when on GM vehicles to do rear disc pads you had to adjust the parking brake cable just like the self adjuster on rear drums to get proper pedal apply height and not having excessive parking brake lever travel to apply. This is assuming the parking brake is in the caliper as I don’t know what system Honda uses on this year.

The two symptoms the OP has seem to me only to relate to the calipers. Air or a bad master will not give you a long travel of the parking brake lever to apply.

 

Finally got the car back late yesterday and they replaced the master cylinder. The braking is better and the pedal does not go to the floor anymore. The emergency brake is adjusted perfectly. Overall the pedal is not rock hard by plusher than it used to be. Since my whole braking system minus the front calipers is new, I guess this is how it is supposed to feel.