Bleeding brakes

Gunsons eazibleed works fine for me..

The message from "James_sutton" contains these words:

Often, just opening the nipple and letting it trickle will do fine. For one thing it saves working the seals in the master cylinder into uncharted territory, from which they often don't recover.

Never done anything like this before. So am in the novice area. Going to google a guide. Local garage to us quote us £80 to bleed the brakes. The car manual says it needs to be done once a year and its around that time so thought what the hell time to get my hands dirty because £80 sounds very high for something that sounds simple in theory.

Haven't done much in the way of reading on it yet, but I gather you take the bleed nipple off and attach the hose pipe to it then pump the brakes till the oil fluid is out and then top up the brake fluid resevoir with new flui and pump until you have a steady stream of new fluid coming through and no air then put the bleed nipple back on ? one point I'm not sure on is do you leave the lid on the brake fluid resevoir open or closed when your pumping the brake ?

I did read that you can you can maybe get away without jacking the car up but is easier to jack it up and remove the wheel ?

ok just to clarify the "master cyclinder" is that the brake fluid resevoir or something else?

cheers for all the advice so far

It is a job that needs to be done properly, but brakes are pretty=20 straightforward.

No, you loosen it a little. A couple of turns is ample. The fluid drains=20 through it. There's a hole on the end and a brake bleeding kit will have=20 a pipe that slots over it.

You don't want to do that. Emptying the resevoir will mean that the=20 brake system ends up with air in it. You never want the resevoir to=20 empty entirely during the procedure.

Yes apart from the bit where you didn't take the nipple off :)

You take the lid off or it'll be very very hard work. The system isn't=20 entirely sealed since the resevoir is able to empty a little to take pad=20 wear into account without imploding but it is pretty air tight.

Depending on where the nipple is on the caliper you can probably do it=20 without jacking it up and taking the wheel off. The problem is that=20 you'll only really find out where it is by having a good look at it and=20 that'll probably need the wheel off.=20 =20

The master cylinder is the metal arrangement that the resevoir sits on=20 top of. It has 4 small bore metal pipes coming out of it. =20

Your next problem is working out how to tell when the old fluid has=20 drained and whether you're pumping fresh fluid in. The standard is that=20 old crappy stuff is straw coloured and the new is nice and clear.=20 Problem is that on a newish system the fluid is probably still pretty=20 clear. I tend to work on a system of 'That'll be more than enough'.=20

Remember that the back wheels need doing as well, they're further from=20 the master cylinder than the front ones so more pipes to clear. If you=20 want to flush the entire system, you won't get through a litre of fluid.=20

If you make a mistake and introduce air into the system that you are=20 having trouble getting out, get patient. If you've pumped 300ml of fluid=20 through and the bubbles aren't coming through but the brake pedal hits=20 the floor when you test it, then going away and leaving it for a couple=20 of hours allows the bubbles to settle and possibly escape out of the=20 top. At worst you end up pumping through on or two big bubbles instead=20 of lots of little ones. I'd advise not letting the resevoir get empty=20 enough to suck air into the system though.

Warwick

local garage £15 plus fluid, you might want to look around

Especially as getting a tight bleed nipple out is not for the inexperienced, snapped and rounded a few meself before...

Adam

The message from "James_sutton" contains these words:

The master cylinder is the foot-operated pump under the reservoir.

To bleed the brakes you'll need to either...

Have two people; one to press the pedal and shout "Pushing", the other to open the nipple and release the fluid until the first person shouts "Down", then close nipple again and shout "Shut", the first person then raises their foot and the press it again.

Or, use a vacuum or pressure bleeding kit, which pushes or pulls the fluid through.

Or use a one-man kit which is like the first option only has valve on the outlet which means (in theory) you don't have to have someone playing with your nipples the whole time. I don't reckon they work too well.

Or open the valve and let it trickle out on its own. This has worked well for me on some cars, less well on others.

All good experience though... :-)