has anyone done a one man brake bleed?

 

what is taht?

 

it's to remove brake fluid.

 

Use Speed Bleeders http://www.speedbleeder.com

 

speed bleeders are the only way to do it to my knowledge, inless you are really damn tall and can pump the brake pedal and turn the bleeder at the same time

 

For whoever asked the question, bleeding the brakes means getting any air bubbles out of the hydraulic system. Air is compressible, brake fluid is not. If you have air in the lines, you will get a spongy pedal and poor or non-existent braking.

You have several ways to go.

- Vacuum bleeding. Using Mity-vac or similar device to pull fluid out of each bleeder valve in turn until all air bubbles are cleared out.

- Pressure bleeding. Using a pressure bleeder device, you force brake fluid under pressure from the brake fluid reservoir out to each bleeder valve in turn. Motive Products makes one, EZ-Bleed makes one, you can even make one yourself.

- Speedbleeders. One way valves that replace your bleeder screws. You open each bleeder in turn and pump the brakes until you are satisfied all air bubbles are gone. A check valve prevents old fluid from being sucked back through the bleeder valve when you release the pedal.

There is tons of information about this on the web. I'd suggest searching for "pressure-bleeder" or similar using Google.

In my experience, I would rank the various bleeding methods like this:

- two man method. still works the best.

- pressure bleeding. you risk squirting brake fluid all over the place if you can't get a good seal on top of the master cylinder. If you can get a good seal, it works great. Best one-man method.

- speedbleeders. problem is if you are by yourself, you have to operate the brake pedal, making it hard to see what is happening at each wheel.

- Mity-vac. problem is it is hard to get a good seal around the bleeder valve threads, so you tend to see air bubbles even after the system is bled. Makes it hard to tell when you are finished.

 

good info with pros and cons.

 

i just replaced BOTH of my rear calipers today with my friend Frank(Lexus mechanic). We bled the entire system out and now my pedal feels worse than before. Could it be we didnt get all the air out of the lines?

anyone have some feedback?

Ant

 

I just replaced my two rear calipers this week also. The first time I bled the system using a Mity-vac and did not get all the air out. The next day, I bled the system again, this time using the two-man method and the pedal feel is good now.

If you feel the pedal is spongy or mushy, that is how you know there is still air in the system somewhere. If the brakes seem a little weak, that is pretty normal because your new pads/rotors have to be bedded in. It takes a couple hundred miles of normal driving to get full braking power on the new hardware.

Did you let the fluid level in the reservoir drop below the minimum at any time? If so, you might have introduced air that way. Do you have ABS?

If I were you, I'd try running the engine and applying the brakes repeatedly - like 10-20 times. If the brakes don't firm up, there is no harm in bleeding again. You want to flush out all the old fluid anyway. That takes nearly a quart of brake fluid run through the system.

Try using the two-man method. Make sure the car is level. At each wheel in turn, attach a 1/4" outer-diameter clear plastic tube to your bleeder valve. This is like aquarium tubing. Put the other end of the tube in a glass jar with some brake fluid in it, so the end of the tube in the jar is submerged. Hold the jar above the bleeder valve to encourage any air bubbles to rise through the tube. Now, person-1 instructs person-2 to press the brake pedal, then person-1 opens the bleeder valve one-quarter turn with a 10mm wrench. and watches the tube to see if there are any air bubbles coming out. Person-1 closes the bleeder valve, and tells person-2 to release the brake pedal. Repeat this press-open-watch-close-release cycle until there are no air bubbles coming out. Refill the reservoir before doing the next wheel.

Bleed the wheels in this order:

1st - passenger-side rear
2nd - driver-side front
3rd - driver-side rear
4th - passenger-side front

Tap each rear caliper with a rubber mallet a few times while you are bleeding them, since they were filled with air, to knock any bubbles loose.

Good luck!

 

i have been reading about making a Pressure bleeder with a sprayer container. there is no detailed info on getting the tube to seal on the cap (car side) to block air. do you know how it is done?



i thought the order is

1st - passenger-side rear
2nd - driver-side rear
3rd - passenger-side front
4th - driver-side front

 

On making your own brake bleeder, you can use a spare master cylinder cap, drill a hole to fit a quick disconnect fitting used for air lines. Look at the pictures on this page for an example.

http://www.motiveproducts.com/02bleeders.html

Remember, you don't want to exceed 10-15 psi, so you don't have to have industrial-strength seals here.

On the order, sometimes people say the right order is to go from the furthest wheel from the master cylinder and work your way to the closest wheel. That would probably explain the order you described.

Several of the Factory Service Manuals I have seen recommend bleeding cars with the dual-diagonal brake system in pairs. One rear wheel along with the front wheel on the opposite side. I can only say I've done it this way and got good results. Probably other methods will work, too.

 

 

thanks for the links folks. some folks were able to make a Pressure bleeder for about $25 that looks almost idenitical to motive products. i will look more into this.