Is There An Easy Way To Bleed Brakes

[910trx]

not skyline specific - but i'm trying to do a full service on my mrs laser tonight with the brakes requiring a lot of attention. basically the brakes work fine except there is quite a lot of sponge in the top half of the pedal.

i doubt its ever been looked at.

besides getting under there and bleeding at the nipple by getting an accomplice to press when i voice DOWN, lock the nipple and yell up - repeating constantly and toping up the reservoir - is there an easier way to do it at home

a mate of mine had an awesome device which caused a vacume and drew the fluid up a clear hose - but we are no longer friends so my workshop privelages have been revoked

any tips will be appreciated or devices to assist/where to find them would be simply awesome!

Edited January 8, 2010 by 910trx

[mad082]

you can gravity feed the lines. for this you just make sure the master cylinder/resevoir is full with fresh fluid, then starting at the wheel furtherest away from the master cylinder just open the bleed screew and let the fluid run out (via a hose into a bottle/container) until it runs clear (meaning new fluid). then close it off, make sure there is plenty of fluid in the resevoir and move onto the next furtherest away wheel.

this method can be done with only 1 person.

[mad082]

i forgot to add to make sure that you have plenty of spare fluid if doing it that way. you could simply just bleed it until any bubbles come out, but you would be best of getting all the old fluid out.

[gotRICE?]

Could just take it to a brake shop and get them to vacume change the fluid Saves so much hassle haha.

Yeah im getting lazy...

[bozodos]

approximately how much fluid would that involve marc? I was under the impression that you needed special tools etc etc lol

[910trx]

i forgot to add to make sure that you have plenty of spare fluid if doing it that way. you could simply just bleed it until any bubbles come out, but you would be best of getting all the old fluid out.

thanks

last time i did a grav bleed was on my old nissan after swapping a master cyl

must have been some air in the system which prevented a bleed as no matter what i would do it would not flow - hence resorting to the "up down method"

guess if there is minimal air in the system - ie replacing old for new may work better than my last attempt.

what about bleed valves (yeah i did a search after posting) any good or just a useless toy?

[mad082]

approximately how much fluid would that involve marc? I was under the impression that you needed special tools etc etc lol

to be honest, i wouldn't have a clue how much fluid you would need for a full change. i'm guessing a few bottles though.

as for needing special tools, you may need them for a car with ABS, but if it doesn't then all you need is a spanner to fit the bleed nipple, some tubing that is a snug fit over the bleed nipple and a bottle or container.

i think the other thing is that you have to pump the brakes with the car turned off to get rid of any vaccum pressure from the booster first. it is a slow process even at the best of times though. the method where you pump the brakes is a much quicker method. however i think you could probably speed up the gravity method with the use of a large syringe. this is similar to the method used for bleeding brakes on bikes (push bikes). you could use the syringe to suck fluid out of the caliper, but even with a decent sized syringe it would still take a little while.

[Nic_A31]

A bottle, possibly two.

Did this on a Falcon, we took as much old fluid out as possible (from the top of the master cylinder) with a syringe kind of thing...whatever they're called, put new fluid in and bled it until the different color started coming through....didn't even use one full bottle, but this was for the front brakes only, and the cylinder, lines and calipers would hold a bit more fluid than a Laser.

One bottle, given the size of the car and you don't really need to change the fluid in the rears.

Edited January 8, 2010 by Nic_A31

[Craig SLO33]

you might be saving time by taking short cuts bleeding ur brakes but honestly why would you want to risk your life , just to save a few minutes of your precious time.do it right and you know theyll work when you need them most!!

[ali-turko]

i just was thinking the other day bout bleeding brakes with a large syringe,

connect clear hose to the end of the syringe other side to the nipple and such the air out, i'll be trying this method next week

[MrR33666]

if the pedal is spongey try the bleed first

but check the flow of fluid out of each nipple could be leaking wheel cylinder if it has drum rears just pull drum off and pull back rubber if fluid comes out replace cylinders.

if the flow is slower out of l/h/f and r/h/r or r/h/f/ and l/h/r could be a faulty accumulatoer or master cylinder.

[Trackwork]

You can get 1 man brake bleeding kits from places like supercheap, repco. I haven't used one but intending to next time I bleed brakes after reading a few positive comment by other users.

[ali-turko]

those brake bleed kits are rubbish iv tryed both types the ones with the one way valves and the ones with the small bottle

both didnt work as they were supposed to, dont wast your time and money

[heller44]

I used the little plastic bottle one man jobbie.. Had to replace master cyl so had to bleed the whole system. Worked fine, as easy as using a second person but actually did what I wanted..

[910trx]

i bought a one man bleed kit

what a waste of time that was

instead i pinched one of the hoses off it and crammed it over the nipple, opened it up the nipple and let it drain untill the new fluid came through into an old water bottle.

threw the rest of the kit away

piece of piss!

dunno why grav bleeding never worked on my other car...

but brakes are working great now but i'd suggest to anyone bleeding brakes in the future to just go to bunnings and buy a short piece of clear tube.

[NZM.031]

yep... thats what we do at the workshop..

nobody has or uses special brake bleeding tools has they are a huge pain to use, very messy (not something you want to be messy with) and usually cause more problems than they solve.

if you are completly changing the fluid, then its easier to crack a line at the master cyl, and drain most of the fluid from there, then pump it through till the colour changes.

but yeh during a service, we would pump the pedal a few times before getting out of the car, and just crack each bleeder until it would run out with a constant stream.

most guys will have a 2L coke bottle, with some wire to hang it up under the car, a hole in the top with some vacuum hose into it..

a handy thing is to have clear hose.

[mad082]

or if a pet shop is closer than bunnings, go there, LOL

[Ultimategtr]

Im planning on changing my fluid to 5.1 this weekend.

My cars got ABS, should I be doing anything special? I know the bleed order (rear left/right, front left/right).

Thanks