[Picasso]

My brake dragging at lower speeds has for the most part disappeared. At highway speeds it is still very evident, but it is at a lower level than it was initially. When I jacked up the car and spun one of the front wheels yesterday, it still felt like it did immediately after the install.

On my last trip of 270 miles, I got 18.8mpg while using the A/C the whole way, so the dragging doesn't seem to have much of an effect in that area. My transmission does shift out of OD much easier and sooner than before though. I do believe that this is a bed in issue which will just take time to resolve.

I DID FIND ONE OTHER POTENTIAL PROBLEM WITH MY BRAKES TODAY.
I tested for residual brake line pressure by opening the bleeder on the left caliper after driving for a while. No squirt of fluid came out, indicating no residual pressure. I then gave the brakes one pump with the bleeder still open to make sure that no air was introduced into the line during this test. The fluid was collected through a clear tube into a white plastic cup and when I looked at it, I noticed a small amount of black particles floating in the fluid. The particles looked like finely ground graphite which settled to the bottom of the cup. I then blead some fluid from the right caliper and found fewer but larger black particles in the fluid. To compare, I did the same at the LSP&BV bleeder. NO PARTICLES there.

When I drained the fluid from my original calipers after removing them, the last ounce of fluid that came out from the left caliper was almost entirely black. It was so much, that it darkened the quart of old fluid that I was draining the caliper into. The other caliper didn't have nearly as much of the dark particles, but it did have some. At the time I attributed this to normal deterioration of the seals in a caliper with 60k miles on it. Now I don't think that was the case. I still have the container of old fluid and some of the black particles are still suspended in the fluid and some have settled to the bottom.

The only black rubber parts in the brake system that I know of are in the master cylinder, brake hoses, and calipers. I don't know what is in the ABS box. Given this, can anyone give a recommendation as to what is causing this or how I should troubleshoot this?

On another note, my brakes still stop really well. No matter how hard I push the brake pedal though, it never gets to a point where it stops feeling a spongey. I'm afraid that if I press it as hard as I can that something is going to pop. Is this normal? Shouldn't there be a point where the pedal gets really firm?

Many thanks,


Paul