Bleeding Brake Lines

[SLEEPR85]

Can anyone tell me how to bleed the brake lines or the brake system? I've read through all the tutorials and they all say "bleed as per standard procedure" or something like that, but no-one actually says how to bleed them. I'm in the process of changing my brakes myself as i am a bit short on funds (due to some stupidly expensive upgrades) and thought i'd do a system flush at the same time so any information here would be good.

[J'z-R33]

Person 1, Pumps the brake peddle -> then holds the Pedal to the floor

Person 2, Opens the caliper nipple once person 1 has the peddle to the floor -> then closes the nipple once the pedal has hit the firewall.

Check fluid reservour top it up if its low, its very important to monitor this.. if you run out of fluid you will have to bleed the master and lines again.

Then repeat the above...

Start with the Passangers rear, drivers rear, passangers front, driver front and your done..

[cuppas]

or you could just do it lazy...

all wheels off, buckets under each corner

crack all four then just wait and top up the reservoir

close them once youre done

[Julz89]

yer but doin it that way sometimes u wont get all the air out of the system. best way would be go to repco or bursons or sometihn get one of those one man bleeders cost ya like 10 buks and u put the hose on the nipple and pump peddel to the little bottle is full, or easier way would be to get a vacume bleeder, which u hook up to a commpressor and u suk the fluid out of the nipple/ brake lines.

[SLEEPR85]

Cool, thanks for all the suggestions guys. Will be trying these on the weekend. Cheers

[Scadtional]

I am about to change to braided lines, new pads and rotors.

Do I do the same bleeding procedure until the new fluid comes through?

Do you have to do anything differently with ABS systems?

[Shaun]

Ive never touched the nipples on the ABS. I just use one of the one man bleeders (very worthwhile purchase), and thouroughly bleed all four sides starting from the passender side rear, and getting progressively closer to the master cylinder. That is; PS rear, DS rear, PS front, DS front.

With the one man brake bleeder (it comes with instructions too), pump the peddle about 15 times until the master cylinder reservoir gets to the "minimum" level, no lower, otherwise you'll suck air into the system and have to do it all again. You'll probably go through about a bottle of brake fluid, but youll get a good result.

[Fry_33]

I took some pics last time I did this with the bleeder kit so thought I'd put them up incase they help.

Fill the resevoir (put the cap back on each time).

Put the hose on the brake nipple

Using the magnet attach the bleeder kit to a position higher than the caliper. This is so in between presses of the brake peddle the fluid in the hose keeps any air from getting back into the caliper.

Loosen the brake nipple and then press the brake peddle slowly until the bottle is full.

Tighten the brake nipple.

I lowered the bottle and stuck it to the lower control arm (somewhere lower than the caliper). This means when you take the hose off of the brake nipple it runs into the bottle and not all over everything. Ok so you will probably spill some but it can help.

Empty bottle and repeat.

As mentioned earlier make sure you top up or at least check the resevoir fluid level before each time.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Fry_33

[Julz89]

well u dont really have to stop pumpin the pedal until it reads min if u really want to just wait till the fluid changes colour thats comin out of the nipple.

[Waza_GTR]

If you are starting from empty after changing the brakes you have to do the fronts first, then the rears , then the fronts again. This is because you need to get pressure in the fronts to open the proportioning valve to the rears.

[H@ME]

buy ur self a one-way value, one man bleeder around $15 bucks..follow instructions on back. easy. make sure u check resiviour and start from furtherest wheel away from brake master cyclinder n work your way towards it.. Hame

[Beer Baron]

I took some pics last time I did this with the bleeder kit so thought I'd put them up incase they help.

Fill the resevoir (put the cap back on each time).

Put the hose on the brake nipple

Using the magnet attach the bleeder kit to a position higher than the caliper. This is so in between presses of the brake peddle the fluid in the hose keeps any air from getting back into the caliper.

Loosen the brake nipple and then press the brake peddle slowly until the bottle is full.

Tighten the brake nipple.

I lowered the bottle and stuck it to the lower control arm (somewhere lower than the caliper). This means when you take the hose off of the brake nipple it runs into the bottle and not all over everything. Ok so you will probably spill some but it can help.

Empty bottle and repeat.

As mentioned earlier make sure you top up or at least check the resevoir fluid level before each time.

good instructions but one small change, don't put the cap back on the resevoir. as it seals it up. you need it to be able to drain during bleeding. you can just rest the cap back on top to stop crap falling in, but don't screw it back on.

[Scadtional]

When disconnecting the brake lines, I'm guessing a lot of the fluid will pour out.

Is the trick to just disconnect them, put on the new one quickly and then bleed them till all the air is out and the new fluid comes through?

PS. Was quoted $265 to do this... (pads, rotors, fluid and lines) 3 hours labor.

[Fry_33]

I don't know how good they are for brake lines but you can get those yellow hose clamps from repco to stop the fluid leaking.

I wanted to keep the cap on while bleeding the lines. The brake pedal pushes the fluid out of the lines so I didn't see any problems puting it back on. I was mainly tying to prevent as much exposure to the air as possible as brake fluid is hygroscopic (I think that's the one). It basically absorbs moisture from the air which is bad as moisture (water) in your lines can turn into gas when pressured up during braking which is like having air in the lines.

[**RB2530**]

I came up with this really cool idea of using air pressure from one of your tyres via a tyre valve fitting and hose to a brake fluid special reservoir cap without a breather hole...then you just fill up the reservoir with brake fluid, apply the air pressure to the special cap and open each caliper bleeder. The air pushes the fluid through the system and you dont need to pump the pedal. Some older VW beetles used this idea to power windscreen washers...they used the spare tyre as an air pressure source...

You could use a compressor instead of tyre pressure if you are game but I reckon the brake fluid reserviour would only be good for 50psi tops..so if your regulator fails, broken reserviour and brake fluid everywhere..Using tyre pressure is awesome cos it is inherently regulated and cannot exceed tyre pressure...

Why am I disclosing this and not calling the patent office?....some other dude thought of it a couple of years ago and put a patent on it......shit!! I am gonna make one anyways...

[Duncan]

lol let us know how you go.

BTW on an ABS equipped car, RF is closer to the master cylinder than LF....

[_Wing_]

lol let us know how you go.

BTW on an ABS equipped car, RF is closer to the master cylinder than LF....

on ABS cars, shouldnt you bleed further from the abs pump, not the master cylinder?

[cuppas]

on ABS cars, shouldnt you bleed further from the abs pump, not the master cylinder?

has it made a difference to anyone?

[_Wing_]

on ABS cars, shouldnt you bleed further from the abs pump, not the master cylinder?

engrish edit: furthest, not further*

[Duncan]

dunno, I still bleed left front last and have no problems...but if the theory is closest to the master cylinder last, then the right front is definately closest in pipe length