So after 17-18yrs, one of my front stainless steel brake hose suddenly ruptured. Luckily it happened in my driveway. No big deal I thought, get new brakes hoses from parts store, bleed brakes and keep it rolling. Couple bottle of brake fluid later and the pedal still feel spongy. Here's the detail

- When I took the wheels off, I notice the LF caliper had a slight seepage. It was moist but not leaking
- Went to salvage yard and got another caliper
- Stop at parts store and got two new rubber brake hoses
- Since the hose ruptured, the reservoir drained out while I was out getting the parts I needed.
- Installed LF caliper and two brakes hose
- Open both front bleeder screws and allowed calipers to gravity bleed, which it did and fluid was flowing by itself.
- Decided to bleed all for wheels, RR, LR, RF, LF
- Pedal felt spongy, so I re-bled it again and again in the same sequence.
- Nice clean, non aerated fluid was coming out all calipers
- Still spongy, so I thought maybe my master cylinder went bad.
- Back to salvage yard and got a used master cylinder
- Installed used master cylinder, bled master cylinder, re-bled all calipers again and again, still spongy.

So this time I decided to check the factory service manual. The bleeding sequence it says to do is LR, RF, RR, LF.

At this point I was so fed up with the brakes, I didn't try re-bleeding in the order the factory service manual suggested.

My questions, am I missing some, how important is the order of bleeding. This simple job has turned into a beast.

 

I'm not sure one person can do it effectively....But once you're sure it's all solid fluid and it's still spongy it's time for your Master cylinder to be replaced especially if you have the other person press the brake pedal and barely any fluid is moving at the rear cylinders....Master cylinder time!

 

I forgot to mention I was doing to two person, pump and hold method. Anyways, after about a gallon (ok not a gallon) of brake fluid, I finally got the pedal firm again. Or at least to the pressure it was feeling prior to this fiasco

I decided to do the factory service sequence and have the engine running for that extra brake booster pressure. But it's finally done and I used the master cylinder from the salvage yard. My guess, my original master cylinder was working perfectly.

 

Sometimes there is valving in the distribution blocks that call for special methods.

I try to do the two person method as much as humanly possible, but I have one of those pressure bleeders with a cap for my E46 and I've used that a couple times too. I just follow the old adage farthest to closest and it has worked for me. I'm pretty sure that's how I did it on my old maximas too.

I do it with the engine off, I don't feel a need to involve the power booster. I've never done a gravity bleed, not sure I trust it, but have never tried so take that with a grain of salt.

 

I have never tried gravity bleed either. In fact, I never even realized people actually did that until the past couple of years. My whole life I just assumed everybody did the two man method. I've been somewhat amazed at friends with domestics who seem to exclusively do that.

They think I'm somewhat silly insisting on the two man method with the engine off, which I use exclusively on all my cars.

 

I actually invested in a vacuum canister bleeding tool that allows one person to bleed a vehicle solo!

 

The way I have always done it is RR,LR,RF,LF and it has worked for me.

 

farthest to the nearest to the MC.

you sure the MC is good...i assume you bench bled the MC before you installed it right?

also the rubber hoses might give you a little bit more spongy feeling compared to the SS lines.