Changed Brake Pads Need Help.

[baysideblue14]

Hi all,

Today i changed the front and rear brake pads on my r34 gtt.

However i forgot to bleed the brake lines, i was in a rush and drove off after all pads were on. Is this a bad thing?

I drove the car for about an hour today and it seems fine. Popped the hood when i got home and there was a bit of fluid that must of overflowed out of the tank, im guessing this is from when the pistons were pushed in?

Also when i first started the car i gently pumped the brake a few times and heard some air then brake pedal went normal again.

Can someone please give me some advice here.

Greatly appreciated. Also searched a few tutorials and didnt mention anything about bleeding the brakes only showed pics on how to change pads.

[GTSBoy]

There are endless howtos on bleeding brakes on the net.

Bleeding is not essential, because, if you think about it, you haven't opened up the hydraulic system at all. BUT......you have disturbed it and as you discovered it did take some pumps to get it settled down again. Because brakes are the single most important part of your car, bar none, you shouldn't mess about. Make the effort to get them bled up.

More than just bleeding, if you cannot remember the last time the fluid was changed, then it is certainly time to flush it through so you have fresh stuff from one end of the system to the other. This alone is a good reason why you should bleed/flush the brakes when you change pads. It is a good time to make sure that it is all good at the same time.

The other thing you need to remember is to suck some fluid out of the master cylinder reservoir BEFORE you push any pads back. Now that you have brake fluid all down the firewall and haven't washed it of with water, it's probably too late to rinse it of so it doesn't eat the paint.

[Duncan]

There are endless howtos on bleeding brakes on the net.

Bleeding is not essential, because, if you think about it, you haven't opened up the hydraulic system at all. BUT......you have disturbed it and as you discovered it did take some pumps to get it settled down again. Because brakes are the single most important part of your car, bar none, you shouldn't mess about. Make the effort to get them bled up.

More than just bleeding, if you cannot remember the last time the fluid was changed, then it is certainly time to flush it through so you have fresh stuff from one end of the system to the other. This alone is a good reason why you should bleed/flush the brakes when you change pads. It is a good time to make sure that it is all good at the same time.

The other thing you need to remember is to suck some fluid out of the master cylinder reservoir BEFORE you push any pads back. Now that you have brake fluid all down the firewall and haven't washed it of with water, it's probably too late to rinse it of so it doesn't eat the paint.

great post.

[baysideblue14]

Thank you for the advice.

Luckily the brake fluid did not go on any paint it only oozed out of the tank a little didnt really go onto anything else.

How exactly do i bleed the lines of air? I want to do it just to be safe. Do the lines have to be bled on each actual brake or can you do it from the engine bay? Cant actually see any nipple/valve.

The fluid was flushed during 100k service (4,000ks ago) so wouldnt really be due for a flush.

[GTSBoy]

If you haven't bled brakes before, it is most certainly worth enlisting the help of someone who does know what they're doing to show you how. it's not really a 1 person job anyway, so you might as well learn to do it properly instead of reading about it, f**king it up, then needing help anyway.

[89CAL]

Should be right if you just pushed the pistons back in. Unless it ran out of fluid when you were pumping the pistons back out.

If the fluid level was still O.K after the pistons were pushed back out then just top it up and it will be fine. Get some water and wash the brake fluid, should only need water