Hi Forum -

I've got an in-progress DIY upgrade of my '03 Touring from base brakes to some OEM Brembos I got on eBay. Rebuilt the calipers with new seals.

The two fronts went on slowly but fine and seem to be working / no issues.

I'm in the process of bleeding the rear left caliper. I noticed the inboard bleeder valve started leaking as soon as I hooked up the staineless steel brakeline to the hard line. The bleeder valve won't tighten - likely stripped. I swapped that with the bleeder from the right rear caliper, which isn't installed yet. Still the leaking, leading me to believe caliper is stripped.

I did unscrew both bleeder valves, put anti seize on the threads, and screwed them back in when I was re building the calipers - possibly that was a bad idea. However only the inboard valve is leaking

Any suggestions (other than getting a new caliper?). Can I get a new fancy bleeder valve from somewhere? Re tap the caliper hole? Plug the bleeder valve somehow?

 

Re-thread the bleeder and caliper to the correct specs, use rtv silicone aka Ultra Grey on threads (only!) before bleeding. Tighten bleeder down once you're done once again to the correct specs, silicone should cure and seal it up. The caliper is aluminum, the bleederis steel, don't over torque it.

 

There are bleeder screw repair kits available, for a proper and permanent repair. Best installed by a machine shop, and not expensive.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/d...3960/5012856-P

Problem with the Brembo's, and especially the rears, is there's not much metal to work with. On similar calipers I have drilled the bleeder holes lightly and then brazed in the repair fitting.

 

Thanks guys.

mr. sparco - ordered an m10x1 tap, I'll give that a try ( never tapped anything before so we'll see how that goes ... lol). Will just order replacement bleeder valve rather than trying to re thread the stripped bleeder.

dcains - actually I picked up exactly that kit from local O'Reily store. Turns out the small repair valve is just barely too small, threads won't grab in existing 10mm hole. Large repair valve is too big - not enough metal on edges of bolt hole to drill a hole big enough for it. So that won't work. Appreciate the suggestion though.

 

UPDATE !

OK, did get a 10x1 metric tap and tap wrench and attempted to re tap the bleed screw hole. Then replaced stripped bleeder screw with new 10x1 power bleeder. This was initially successful - was able to tighten screw and stop flow of brake fluid. However after loosening screw, bleeding brakes, and re tightening screw (carefully!), the hold seemed to be stripped again and I wasn't able to cut off braked fluid leak.

As plan B, a week earlier I had ordered a replacement caliper off e-bay. So at this point I just replaced the caliper. Replacement caliper was in much better condition and I had no trouble with the bleeders. More money than I wanted to spend but car had been out of action for a week by this time and I just wanted to get it back on the road.

Lessons learned I guess ! Beware condition of used calipers !

 

You're supposed to use a tapered tap for brake bleeders. Take the calipers to a proper machine shop to see if they can be salvaged.