Thread: brakes locking up

Hey guys,im having a problem with my b14 se-r. About a month ago i swapped out the auto trans for a manual. Most of the swap went smoothly and i got it started fairly easy. Once i finished the wiring i noticed that the brake light stayed on. I then took off the brake pedal and adjusted the spacing on the two switches that trigger the brake lights and cruise control. As well as spacing out the rod from the booster that lines up with the pedal. This seemed to aleviate the problem as now the lights only come on when the pedal is pressed and are no longer constantly on.

When i went to test drive it, it felt very hard to move as it was dragging or being held down. The front brakes had locked up and were clamping down. I bled the brakes and tried it again. This time i rolled it out of the garage and it felt like normal, no drag no lag. I let it sit for like 15 min as i swept up a little. When i went to back it out of the driveway, it did the same thing over again; the front brakes were locked up and now the ebrake seems to have locked up as well. Also when i was rolling it out of the garage i pressed the brake and heard a click kind of like a relay clicking.

So my thoughts on the subject could be this...

-could i have, upon installation of the manual brake pedal damaged the master cylinder?

-over adjusted the switches and booster rod and have given the brake pedal too little travel to properly engage the brakes?

-am i over my head and should just burn the car too the ground?

any input on this matter would be very much appreciated and if anyone in the nyc area would be kind enough to lend a hand and some technical help, I would be more than thankful and happy to buy lunch and a few brews to compensate. thanks for looking.

does the car have abs

Yeah its got abs

It could be that you have a bad abs unit i am not sure how to test this , my car was having similar problems i first tryed a master cylinder with no change then i was going to eliminate the abs anyways to clean the engine compartment up a bit and when i eliminated it i put it back together bled the system and havent had any probloems ever since .

good point but how could it go bad from sitting in the garage? Now maybe someone with better knowledge than i could please tell me if...
-that itself would throw a check engine?
-if i took out the relay controlling the abs would i be able to drive it?

thanks for the idea boosted nx

anyone have any other personal experience like this?

Is it possible that when you adjusted the brake pedal that you've made it pre-load the master cylinder and if you loosen that up the brakes will loosen up? I swear I've seen this happen before.

thats a good point. But what i dont understand is that when they lock up; i go and bleed the brakes. Once i do this the car feels gret nooo problem. If i start the car up and leave it running for a few minutes the brakes lock right back up.

I will def. try to readjust the booster rod to where it was originally im just trying to narrow it down.

Thanks for your input

i had the same problem a long time ago. we redid the master cylinder and been fine ever since.