Brake bleeding

[Davidbolam]

How long should it take to bleed brake lines from dry? I have just been trying but with no success. I have also tried my eazibleed kit and that's not working either?

Has anyone got any ideas what I'm doing wrong or is my master cylinder knackered? (Mx5)

David

[skov]

Took me about half an hour :o
I used a syringe to inject fluid in through the caliper bleed nipples.

[jason 82]

If your mx5 has abs, it may need to go on the computer to be bled via the abs pump. My golf was an absolute cow & had to go on the vag system. If it hasn't got abs, I would start checking for loose fittings. Maybe the system is sucking a little bit of air from somewhere, and air compresses easier than fluid. If this is still playing up after a quick check, I would strip the master cylinder and fit new springs & seals to it. Master cylinder rebuild kits are available on the net for about £25. Oh, have you tried bleeding the clutch ? Think it all works off the same system on the mx5. But you may need to confirm this. :D

[Davidbolam]

Thanks.

I will try again tomorrow. I got the occasional bubble in the jar but didn't seem to be getting any fluid coming out.

I will try putting some in with a syringe as well


David

[K4KEV]

David ...I bled mine from dry and simply started from the nearest to the MC and then the next nearest and so on then re-bled the whole lot in reverse order try it and see.

[Short]

David,

If theres nothing but air coming out the calipers, whats the fluid level doing in the reservoir?

If its dropping, the fluid must be going somewhere. Check all around the lines/joints/calipers for leaks. If theres no leaks, keep at it.

If the level doesn't change, you've probly got a blockage somewhere.

[Davidbolam]

thanks


i will try again tonight and keep going a bit longer!!

when I did the clutch I used the eezibleed which worked a trick. it doesn't work well with the brakes as i had to buy a really large universal cap that doesn't seal very well.

David

[flyerncle]

If the master cylinder is lower than the calipers you may have a problem at first getting the fluid to the calipers.

Possibly open the bleed screws with the calipers hanging down and let them drip and see what happens .

Have a look and make sure piston is not stuck in.

[jps]

Not that I have any first hand experience of this task - but isn't there a way you can fill with fluid from the caliper end? Or have I imagined that? Would that help at all?

[davidimurray]

Having gone through quite a brake saga on my car - first check that your master cylinder is bled. Take the pipes out and fit bleed nipples into each port. Then pick a nipple and put a hose on it looped back into the reservoir. Now pump the fluid round and round until you see no air. Also worth tapping the master cylinder. Push slowly and quickly to move any stubborn air. Repeat for each port. Then connect up one line at a time and pump the fluid through (or use the easibleed). If using an easibleed you might want to give the pedal a pump every so often with the easibleed connected. Repeat for each line until you get a good solid pedal. An most importantly make sure your master cyl push rod is long enough!

[flyerncle]

There is a possibility that the seal in the m/cyl has turned over and wont pass fluid,happens often with Vauxhall's if you are not carefull pushing the caliper pistons back

[Davidbolam]

Last night a couple of mates came around to help bleed my brakes. 1 to press the pedal, 1 to open the bleed screws and me to hold the eezibleed cap on as hard as possible. Once the master cylinder had some fluid in it the fluid started to flow really well along the pipes.

All done now (for the time being). still have a little bit of air in there but will give it a few weeks to give gravity a chance for the air bubbles to rise to the calipers and will do it again.

if you push down hard for about 2 minutes there is a slight amount of creep. hopefully this will cure somehow!!! if not I will try a rebuild kit. I will also see what happens with my car when I press the pedal (engine off of course).

David

[alga]

One top tip I found on the internets is to bench bleed the MC when fitting an empty one. You put it in a vice, attach short pieces of brake tubing into the outlets, and loop the ends back into the reservoir. Fill it with fluid and pump until all the air is out. It takes some pumping interspersed with some time to let it sit to displace all the air in the cylinder. Then you install the cylinder with all the fluid in it and hopefully have a much simpler job when bleeding the whole system.