First off its not on a thirdgen but hopefully u guys can still help. its an 89 buick park avenue.

Ok, well the problem is i need to push the pedal halfway before i feel the brakes start to grab. so im thinking theres air in the lines, but i havent done anything that would get air in the lines, so i look at some other stuff first. I changed the rotors and pads up front two years ago. I pulled the wheels off and my pads were just about due so i put in new ones, although my rotors were pretty good. then i pull off the drum and the shoes are about 1/4in thick and so is the drum wall. i have no idea what the thickness/maximum diameter of the drums or shoes are supposed to be. can someone tell me if the shoes and drum wall are roughly 1/4in, give or take a little, that they need replacement or not?

well after just replacing the pads in the front, the problem is the same. question, should i change the drums/shoes or first try to bleed the system? do both? i'm a little worried about how the air got in the lines if thats what it really is. being an 89 car, you think maybe just as time went on the fluid just got bubbles/mostiure in it? what else might be wrong causing me to have to push the brake pedal about halfway to get brakes? master cylinder going bad?

ive never bleed brakes before but ive seen others do it. i have a basic idea of what to do but is there anything special to take into consideration when doing an 89 buick? i heard that some master cylinders have some sort of valve that u need to open while bleeding? i dont see a valve near my mc but i dunno. i just want to make sure i do it right.

something else i noticed was that when i was going about 10-15mph and push down hard on the parking brake the car still went foward. it did start slowing down faster with it engaged but shouldnt the parking brake lock up the rear tires? does it need adjustment or is this the way the parking brake is supposed to work? if it does need adjustment, how?

hope someone can guide me with this problem.

 

anyone?