I apologize for the newbness and creating another brake fluid thread. But I have a problem and couldn't find the right answers.

I had a horrible attempt at rebuiding the front brake calipers last night. I was replacing the rubber piston ring/boot (both sides). I had a lazy/flawed approach and it led to one of the pistons falling off the caliper while the brake lines were still attached. I didnt know about it immediately and to make a long story short, I got air in my brake system.

Eventually, the calipers were fixed and reinstalled. I bled the front right, then the front left. A lot of air bubbles were coming out at first but stablized soon after. Started the car in hopes for the best and to my unfortunate surprise, brakes wouldnt work going down the driveway. (no accident, parking brake still works)

I bled the fronts again for several minutes but I'm not seeing any bubbles. My bleed process goes like:
1. put hose to FR caliper nozzle and drain into half-filled bottle
2. open nozzle and watch fluid make its way into bottle
3. press/depress brake pedal 5-10 times or until no bubbles
4. keep resevoir filled
5. repeat for FL caliper

After several minutes of bleeding, I still see no bubbles. But the brakes still dont grasp. I'm guessing the air is somewhere deep in the system?? Any suggestions?

 

ur 5-step insta-bleed process seems kinda shady. also, its unclear if you have a friend helping you out or not.

I suggest you:
1) have a friend pump the brakes 4-5 times and HOLD it down on the last press,
2) on the 5th time, crack open your bleeder valve on the caliper about 1/4 - 1/2 turn, just enough to let air bubbles/fluid out.
3) close the bleeder valve BEFORE your friend bottoms out the brake peddle, because it will go down rapidly once you crack that bleeder valve open. You should usually leave it open for less than 1 second.
4) repeat the process until no air comes out, and move onto the next corner of the car.
5) I usually start farthest from the fluid reservoir and move to the closest. ie: RR, RL, FR, FL, and have never ever had problems.
Hope that helps.

if you're a very unsociable loser, then i suggest you get the motiv-power bleeder so you can bleed your brakes on your own without a buddy pumping the brakes for you.

 

Once you get major air in the system, the normal pedal pump bleed just won't cut it.

Here's my thread on the exact same type of problem..

https://my350z.com/forum/brakes-and-...m-brembos.html

Follow my recommendation in that thread and get a powerbleeder, such as the one from Motive. You'll be happy you did. It came in handy this past weekend when my son did the brakes on his Honda. He had the same problem, soft pedal after a brake job, once we powerbled it, the pedal is back to normal.


PS - please clarify "But the brakes still dont grasp". Are you still having soft pedal or is the pedal firm but the brakes just don't grab?

 

Hi Dave. Thanks for that reference! Thats exactly the same condition I'm having. The pedals felt firm during the bleed process but as soon as I started the car, the pedal got soft and hit the floor (thats what I meant by no grasp).

I dont want to wait for shipping as the Z is my dd so I'll see if my local autoparts store has this. Looks like you just hook it up to the main resevoir and pump, right?

And when you bleed, what order did you go? The manual says RR, FL, RL, FR, but I usually do both rears first before the fronts. Not to say the manual is inaccurate, but does it matter? Thanks!

 

You'll be lucky if you can find one locally. I don't think any of the major chains carried them.

That's basically it. If you can find the model 1107 which fits the master cylinder reservoir it's the way to go. The model 1100 has the universal connector which can be a pain to use because of leaks.

I've always done the farthest from the ABS pump first, i.e. RR, LR, RF, LF.

 

Ah foobar you are right. Local shops only carry the vacuum bleeders...

Although the shop guys are saying the vacuum bleeders might be better for removing air bubbles because the pressure bleeder could compress the bubbles, thereby getting them stuck in bends and corners. Whereas vacuum bleeders are just pulling the bubbles out. Makes sense to me.

 

It's not really a case of pushing or pulling bubbles, it's all about flow volume. The more you push through the system, the more likely you are to get the air out. I use a rubber hammer and pound on the calipers to make sure bubbles don't stick to the walls of the internals.

 

random question, anybody know how much brake fluid is needed to do a complete flush? Can't find it anywhere and it's not listed in the FSM.

 

The system holds probably around a pint. The thing about bleeding or flushing is there's no set amount that you need to run through it, everybody does it differently. When I use my Motive unit, I fill it with two 32oz bottle of FRESH fluid. There's probably 16oz left when I'm done flushing the whole system.

If I'm just doing a simple bleed, I may only use a small 8oz bottles worth.

 

About 3 bottles of RBF600 (1,500) ml was just enough using a Motive bleeder.

 

Ok cool. I got 2L of super blue so I should be good for a full flush

sorry for the hi-Jack, carry on

 

You really are getting ready for ZdayZ.