the common problem with the FC is a mushy brake pedal.



the actual problem is air in the caliper/lines, the cause for this is rather simple. the rear calipers actually have 2 bleeder screws, and you need to use them. the second problem is that once the rear is bled the pedal is hard enough that the front cannot be bled very well.



to address these problems i suggest a modified bleeding procedure. starting with the FRONT brakes and moving toward the rear. this lets you bleed the important front brakes fully. in the rear both bleeder screws must be bled.



1. find car



2. wash hands



3. start the bleeding procedure in reverse order, so start with the left front, then the right front.



4. next is the right rear lower bleeder, followed by the right upper, and then the left lower and left upper.



5. enjoy!



i just did this to mine and the brake pedal firmer and more consistent.

 

Interesting. I'll give it a shot when i put my new master cylinder in.

 

Thats a very interesting statement since everyone is taught to go from farthest from the master

 

+1



Not like I've ever worked on an fc, but something to keep in mind. I've never seen a caliper with two bleeders. Makes sense if it's dual piston though I suppose

 

Oddly enough, fc rear calipers are single piston... I've always been curious why they decided to put two valves in, I think Mazda was just screwing with us.

 

Been using a vacuum bleeder lately, seems to work well. It might be pulling more entrained oxygen out of the fluid, just a theory, but brakes are way firmer than the fill, pump and hold method.

 

yeah we used to have one, it was so nice

 

the problem you get with bleeding the rears first is that the pedal is too hard to bleed the front, so this is the workaround. if most of the air is out, there seems to be no problem with bleeding random wheels as long as no air gets sucked into the master and such

 

Bleeding from the master cylinder is a pain. Especially with abs