Today I changed my front brake pads for the first time. Everything is successful except I noticed that brake fluid was leaking from the fill reservoir cap. I assume this happened when I reset the piston on the caliper. Is this normal? Do I now need to bleed the brakes? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

it would've happened when you compressed the calipers but only if brake fluid was added for some reason causing it now to be over full. If fluid was added before doing the brakes it will happen otherwise no its not. basically get an old turkey baster or similar and remove some

 

+1 -- you should always monitor the level of fluid in the reservoir when doing brakes --- you learned the messy hard way, but now you know what full to overflowing looks like, so next brake job you'll be able to judge if you need to remove any. Per satsdn, some one must've added some along the way to account for pad wear.

Brake fluid is corrosive stuff, so be sure to get it off of whatever it got onto when it leaked...

 

Thanks for all of the advice. I agree that someone might have added a little fluid a long the way. I also installed my rear brakes. I did one at a time. When I took off the rotor for the right rear I notices a spring just sitting inside behind the shoes. Hmmmm..... So I then took off the rotor on the other side and the same spring was sitting there in the same place. Neither sides of the spring were connected and they also have lots of metal to metal wear. The top and bottom springs were ok. Where does this third spring go? Thanks

 

you mean rear drums, yes?

I think you are referring to the parking brake cable spring. It may look like it is just sitting there, but I believe it should be riding over the parking brake cable and attached to the parking brake shoe on one side.

Does your parking brake operate correctly?

 

Yes drums not rotors, sorry. If you include the spring that is where the e-brake is then there would be 4 springs total. This spring looks identical to the one on the top of the shoes except it is a little smaller wire so its diameter is less as well as the length. The e-brakes work fine also. I have not had any issues with the brakes at all since installation (about 70 miles city driving). When you look directly at the brake assembly on the car the extra spring was located behind the right shoe. When I took off the drum the spring sat about 1 inch below the shoe, so I would have had to push or take out the spring to reinstall the drum.

 

confused -- you would or would not have had to push or take out the spring to reinstall drum based on its location below the shoe...---what did you end up doing with it?

 

would need to. I have the springs. Want a pic?

 

yes -- of the springs and ideally of the rear wheel with the drum removed, if you're willing.

I believe the only other spring besides the upper and lower return springs and the parking brake cable spring is the adjuster spring which keeps tension on the adjuster assembly. It would be installed at the top of the entire setup, across where the star adjustment wheel would be.....

go register at autozone.com and look in the repair guide under drum brakes (you must be registered to have access to the vehicle repair guide). There is an excellent pic of the entire drum brake system for 91-98 off the car, laid out flat in an exploded type view with the locations of all of the springs minus the parking brake and cable spring.....

 

Here are the springs