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I was going to post this in the "removing brake caliper" thread, but why? Some people here have interests in bleeding brakes so it is best for it to have its own thread. After helping friends bleed brakes, everyone has there own special way of doing it or different techniques they use. There is bleeding brakes and then there is the optimal way of bleeding brakes. Here is a way of bleeding brakes by an expert. Ive used this method and it works best for me and my friends.


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The following is based on recommendations made by brake guru Mac Tilton. Mac is best known as the man that brought Carbon pads and rotors to racing. He is also the owner of Tilton Engineering; one of the main suppliers of brakes and clutches to Indy and F-1.

When bleeding brakes it is best to manually bleed them as pressure bleeders can cause cavitation and bubbles inside the system. Empty the brake reservoir with a turkey baster then fill the reservoir with a high quality brake fluid. Start bleeding at the furthest wheel away from the M/C and progress to the closest. So that would go RR, LR, RF, LF. Attach a length of clear Tigon tubing (available form any auto parts store) to the bleeder nipple, put the other end of the line into some sort of container so the other end will be submerged in brake fluid and open the nipple. Have someone in the car to pump the brakes. Slowly pump all of the old fluid out of the line until new clear fluid comes out, then have the person in the car hold the pedal down while you close the bleeder. Have the person lift the pedal up slowly and then push down slowly while you open the nipple. You have to communicate with the pumper because the bleeder should only be open on the down stroke of the brake pedal. It is important to pump slowly to avoid bubble-forming cavitation. Continue to pump until you cannot observe any bubbles in the clear Tigon tube.

Get a rubber mallet and tap the caliper to dislodge any bubbles that may be stuck inside the caliper and bleed some more until no more bubbles come out. Do this at all the wheels and you are done. Be careful not to let the reservoir run dry or you will have to start all over. On ABS equipped cars you want to be extra careful about this because it takes forever and a lot of fluid to bleed a completely dry ABS system.

good info. definitely deserves to be pinned.

One more thing to add.

DO NOT PUSH THE BRAKE PEDAL ALL THE WAY TO THE FLOOR. Only pump half way or 3/4 of the way. You can damage the master brake cylinder.

*looks around* *looks at his book of common sense* hey here it is right here. i learned to bleed brakes when i was 8. if you dont know how to bleed brakes then i wouldnt touch a car. if u dont know how to work on your brakes then your gonna mess soemthing up and probably get your self killed.

Hey first time poster but not a first time reader. While you are right in your description of bleeding don't forget that some cars have crossed brake lines so you have to bleed them in a slightly different pattern. I think some hondas have a set up like this where it is RR, LF, LR, RF.

Really, was this post necessary? Everyone who wants to know how has to learn to bleed brakes at some point in time. I would not call the process of bleeding brakes "common sense", and if you really thought about it for a second you wouldn't either. Maybe there are people out there who weren't raised around cars, or who are just entering into the car scene and have very little knowledge about technical (for beginners) processes like bleeding brakes? Maybe they want to learn like you did at one point?

Seriously, that was completely inappropriate.

In response to the original message> Great post. Concise and easy to understand. I've looked for something like this to give to friends who are trying to learn to bleed their own brakes.

Gravitus

This post has been edited by Gravitus on May 17 2008, 09:31 PM

that was like 4 Years ago...


Starion isn't like that anymore

This post has been edited by Sensation! on May 17 2008, 09:53 PM

^ Blame the new guy who bumped a four year-old thread

HAHAHAHAHA WOOWWW HAHAHAHAHAHA Four year later starion gets "yelled" at HAHAHA

Umm... this is a great way to explain it IMO. Simple... not all complicated. But yeah...

translation: He's barely active on the forum anymore.

Kind of like you?

i am? well thats news to me

Kind of off topic, but every time I see the topic title, I think "Why is someone using english slang?"

Yes, and a quick 15 second search suggests that 2005 was your year.

GI JOEEEEEEEEE

I didn't realize how old the thread was. My apologies to starion.

Gravitus