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Thread: Brake bleeding rant...

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    Brake bleeding rant...

    I spent today doing fluid change, it was cold, and there was much shouting...

    However I found old and new fluid looked the same.. I drained about 100-150ml out of the front brake nipples.. so it SHOULD be the new fluid coming out. However there were plenty of very small bubbles a few seconds apart, very small and only visible with a light shining through the pipe. IS this normal? and is it possible to have no air bubbles in the brake line? I poured into the reservoir slowley and didnt start bleeding for a good 20 minutes... is there any way to get the bubbles to the front so it can be bled out first? (pressing the pedal maybe?)

    I bleed the front brakes.. but the old fluid looked the same.. I let about 150ml out of the bleed nipple and moved onto the next brake.. Im not sure if it was done or how much fluid is in each brake pipe..

    Also it was getting dark, running out of spare fluid, and I still have the rear and clutch to bleed tomorrow... So: Should I start again, or is it ok to continue?

    Annoyances:
    Why don't spanner sets include a 9mm spanner? WHY???

    Right, I had 1.25L of new saab brake fluid, I poured half of that into the pressure bleeder, and the other half into the reservoir (after sucking out the old fluid by syringe). Looked into it... and there is one small bit of black dirt floating around... oh well.. its in there now.

    The STUPID pressure bleed kit only gives you a length of 3" tube for the nipple to jar.. meaning I spilt quite a bit on me and on my tools 3x different sizes but none long enough!!!! would another inch or two hurt profits THAT much????????


    Lastly, the saab bloke that said I wouldnt need more than 1.25 liter to renew/bleed all of the brakes and clutch...

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    Re: Brake bleeding rant...

    when bleeding the brakes start from the back and the furthest away from reservoir
    and then working back to the nearest one ,
    get someone to sit in car and apply pressure to brake pedal and pump 3 times hold the pedal and then u release the spanner and then lock it .
    try and do it about 15 pumps ( its not an exact number just when i feel confident that that the old stuff has gone)

    DONT shake the new brake fluid, also make sure u use a sensible vessel to catch fluid in , and use a pipe (£3) to place over the bleed nippple

    when u have comleted the job MAKE SURE THAT YOUR BRAKE PEDAL IS HARD (IE THERE IS PRESSURE) AND TEST THE BRAKES , AND I DONT MEAN GO ONTO MOTORWAY

    have fun

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    Re: Brake bleeding rant...

    Mine is different. It said in the book that abs models the front brakes must be first, then rear, then clutch..

    For the rear brakes, it says to use the eleccy hydrualic pump, with the ignition on, pedal depressed and kept for the whole bleeding of each rear brake.

    Ill go out and try again in a bit... doing front brakes some more then the rear.

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    Re: Brake bleeding rant...

    Right, job done



    Except I have now buggered up the clutch..... the pedal has no resistance and my guess is that the master cylinder, or somewhere along the line, is filled with air. If the master has its own bleed nipple I would very much like to know


    Any ideas very apreaciated.. since the car is booked in at saab for 8am tomorrow for something unrelated :/ I dont mind getting up at 5am to play with it IF I have some idea how to go about it, spent alteast 8 hours out there today :/


    Basicly I pressure bled the front brakes as above yesterday, but this morning I wasnt happy so re-bled them untill all the bubbles were gone. The rear drivers side was not so easy as it always had bubbles coming out.. but the passenger side was quick, no bubbles, and after the pedal felt atleast as good as before.. BUT this fluid was not old stuff.. it had been done recently.


    However the clutch hadnt. We were pressure bleeding this with a new fluid from a 5L bottle. Firstly, the old fluid was a horrible milky dark colour which in the jar has started to settle. This picture shows it after about 5 mins...


    About half way through we refilled the pressure bleeder with fluid, and had an air leak on the lid.
    Im not sure how but basicly we fixed the leak, after about 10 seconds we started to get a lot of big air bubbles escaping from the bleed nipple!). so we stopped.. Tryed again/checked a few things... didnt help.
    Then tested the tyre pressure and it was only 5psi. No idea if this was flat becuase of the amount it had pushed out or due to the leak or what..

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    Re: Brake bleeding rant...

    woke up at 5:30am today.. had a read and realised that the pedal has to be depressed whilst it is being bled, which in theory is not needed with brakes although probably a good idea (and what I was doing wrong). The haynes book said nothing about this and also stated it is a 1 person job, which is not really practical.

    I had it fixed by 7:55 and then arrived at saab, at 8:15.
    I told them the brakes were probably a bit spongy, so £20 later they were fully bled and work awesome, 10000x better than before I started.


    And then I spent another £40 for engine light diagnosis.. but they also checked many other things:
    I have several external engine leaks :/
    A small leak in the PAS system
    Drive belt is frayed

    And the D/S CV gaitor is split, which I noticed last week.. but it passed the mot ok last month :/

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    Re: Brake bleeding rant...

    Wow, £20 for your brakes fully bled from a SAAB dealer!?!? Surely that's cheaper than buying your own fluid from Halfords - I'm impressed!

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    Re: Brake bleeding rant...

    so am i , u must go there regular for them to be soo nice m8ty

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    Re: Brake bleeding rant...

    + vat :/
    in halfords it costs £10 for a liter, or £16 for 5L. I dont know how much they used.. I was there for 2 hours but they probably didnt need to do much since I had driven it - probably got all the air down to the nipple.. and there was 100% only new fluid in it...
    Most of the time they were probably trying to get my locking nuts off... it doesnt look like they damaged them but similarly they dont seem to have rummaged though my glove box where the key was.

    A tip for anyone doing a brake fluid change, BUY the 5L bottle. It is definatly worth it, you never know how much you need if for some reson you have a problem with air remaining.. My waste bottle from this weekend found itself 3L more full than it was.. Also unless your car is specified for another fluid, just buy the standard dot4 universal fluid. Racing fluid, which I guess a lot of people will buy (thinking its better), is not good for road use.
    Im told, but not 100% sure if its reliable information, that the remaning few liters will keep for a long time as long as the cap is done up tight. However for the price, I doubt I will risk it.



    Forgot to mention, out of the £70 spent, they also done a few nice checks for me:
    I have various external engine oil leaks, one or two of which I knew about....
    A PAS pipe leak, I will be examining that from under a ramp on saturday
    Frayed drive belt (probably also needs tensioner and idlers)
    O/S outer CV joint boot/or whole joint
    My bodged/wielded front downpipe

    They also noticed my half arsed attempt at doing the coolant, which is low.



    The reson I was at saab was for an engine light check. I had been getting 4 flashes which means knock sensor (£££££&#163. I got 3 codes come out, 44661, 42930, 22451 which I dont know the meaning - any attempt at asking I got "its broken" as the reply... dodgy cable me thinks....
    Last edited by SilentDeath; 17-12-2007 at 06:08 PM.

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