There are many postings relating to changing the pads and bleeding the brake fluid; however, I had the OEM pads (02 MCS, 19K miles, 75% gone in the rear w/ 1 cracked pad, 50% gone in front) replaced with Hawk HPS and ATE blue brake fluid. To stop with the fluid and pads cold requires pushing the pedal to the floor, once they heat up (I mean repeated short duration hard braking), it slows better than stock. This means there is air in the lines, right???? The long-short is can you get air out of the lines without bleeding the fluid? Or am I being a hypochondriac (sic) about the new brakes and fluid not acting like the OEM stuff?

 

Hawk HPS pads will stop better once they have some heat in them than they do cold. So I was almost with you on that.

The amount of pedal travel might vary a little betwen cold and hot.

But the pedal should not be "going to the floor" - ever.

The only way to get the air out (if that's the problem) is to bleed the brakes.

 

Well, the brake does not need to go all the way to the floor when stopping cold, but there is significantly longer travel than stock. I was told that if you unscrew the brake fluid reservior and pump the brakes then the air would magically bubble out; wishful thinking?

 

Completely wishful thinking. Bleed your brakes. You need to every two years anyways. Brake fluid absorbs moisture, allows corrosion to form in calipers and other components to system. Buy a Motive Bleeder. Very easy one man job.

 

If it 'pumps up' you have either a leak or air in the system - more likely air.

If it's consistent travel - but no braking the first application - then it's pads not working cold.

HPS should work fine at most ambient temperatures - perhaps negative F ain't the best but all pads require some heating.