Strange brake behavior

I did some maintenance work on the car today, including bleeding the brakes. Before I bled them, the pedal felt fine, but after I bled them, the pedal feels strange. The brakes still stop fine, and the pedal is still firm once the brakes engage, but there is a good 1/2" of free play at the top of the stroke. However, if I pump the pedal seven or eight times, the free play goes away.

I used the pressure bleeder, so I'm pretty damn sure there isn't any air in the lines. I've rechecked the calipers and the lines, and I don't have a fluid leak anywhere (besides, the pedal is still plenty firm and feels just like it should, except for the 1/2" of free play that has magically appeared at the top of the stroke). Could it be a vacuum leak? It's got me stumped.

Me thinks you have some air in the lines or the master could not take the pressure bleed.

I had that happen one time but I did get air in the lines..... :clown: Had to pump the brakes while the pressure bleeder cap was on to move the air out of the master.

Now on mine it was "spongy" in that 1/2" free play area.

Hmm. I guess I'll bleed it again and see what happens.

Weird. I'm not sure how I managed to introduce air into the system with the pressure bleeder, but I burped a big ol' bubble out of the front right caliper this evening. :scratch:

That solved it. A quick drive revealed a brake pedal that was back to the way it should be. I'm glad I decided to bleed it again and not be lazy, with a hig-speed autox coming up on Saturday.