cool thanks

 

Great DIY, thanks HVRRZ and Billman!
I just did this on my AP1 two days ago. It did take a while, and a little longer for me, since I didn't want to mess with taking off the wheels. I did notice that it took the shortest time for the LF line to bleed Tidy Bowl blue (I, too, used Super Blue), and that pumping the pedal a few times while the bleeder screw was closed helped things along a little bit. I also saw lots of tiny little air bubbles making their way through each line, and I allowed the blue fluid to keep dripping until they were all gone. I don't recommend bleeding the brakes with the tires on, because space for your hands and the clear tubing is severely restricted. But I muddled through, so you can do it if you have to. Just keep the part of the tubing closest to the bleeder angled slightly upward. When I would bend it downward, the fluid would flow away, and there was lots of empty space (i.e. air) right at the bleeder opening.

 

i just did this the other day. a couple tips i learned is to make sure the reservoir is filled up to the lip to put as much pressure as possible on the lines. the other thing especially on the rears is to make sure the front of the car is higher than the rear. my rear lines werent flowing at all until i realized that they were nearly level with the MC lol. raised the front up and they started flowing great. also if it seems like the flow is not working, close the bleeder, make sure the master is filled up, and open the bleeder while carefully looking at the line, you can actually see the fluid going through if you look very close. you will be able to tell when its flowing nicely and should get a steady drip, at least one drop per second. i had so much crap coming from the rear calipers it was crazy.

 

Just did this, everything went great and as planned, however the brakes were super soft at first, and now they are hard after about a few inches of travel. It's super firm down about 1/3 of the way, but not before that. Is this the normal way?

 

Sounds about right from what I remember. Though I'll confirm when I get out to the car. There is a chance maybe if you didn't keep the reservoir full then air might have sneaked into the line...

 

Not a chance, I had that bad boy topped off to get the fluid through with more weight on top of it. I believe it fine, I just assumed the petal was rock hard without a little bit of pressure. It is quite hard when I try to engage ABS. I feel like I'm going to break it, and then when ABS hits, I feel like I broke a lot of things.. lol.

 

I had to rehaul my rear brakes so I changed everything Rotors, stainless steel lines, calipers and pads. When I did the gravity bleed this is what happened:


Everything went smoothly except my gravity bleeding. I followed the DIY completely, The first two calipers went easy. These however where the original fronts so nothing was changed. When I got to the back which was overhauled of course with all new parts nothing was coming out of the lines. As the DIY states if you're not getting any flow turn on the car and pump the brakes well when I did this I started leaking everywhere. Apparently I didn't tighten down the brake line connector tight enough and also one of the bleeder valves on the front had popped the cap off and sprayed fluid everywhere. I then rechecked all my connections and tightened them all.
Now my question is do I need to start the whole procedure over again as I lost quite a bit of fluid, And the brake pedal feels awful like it's almost touching the floor.

 

hi - if you pumped the pedal and it blew fluid from a connection, when you take your foot off the brake pedal, air will be sucked back in through that leak. Normally, the system is a 'closed loop' with a fixed amount of fluid which just moves around/transfers energy as you press the pedal. By having a leak at the loose connection, you've opened the system up and air rushes in to fill the vacuum left when the pedal induced force is removed. You'll need to start again as the air will migrate around the system in the fluid. If you are using the gravity method, it will need to be bled until no bubbles are seen in the fluid coming out. You might need a lot more fluid to flush it through. The pedal should get harder as you do each wheel in turn. Having the car turned on powers up the vacuum servo assistance so your pedal presses = large force. You can pump the pedal with no servo assistance (engine off) which won't put as much force into the system but will still show any leaks. If you are pressing the brake pedal when you start the engine, don't be surprised to feel the pedal sink a bit, that is the servo action kicking in.Hope that helps.

 

With a complete new brake system in the back obviously I had no fluid running through, so is the bleed procedure the same? Just keep it open until it flows out?

 

sorry for delay - if you got fluid as far as the calipers when it started to leak from the loose joints, it should have filled the pistons and will gravity drip once the bleed screws are opened. If no fluid coming out at all, you'll need to use the pedal (try it with engine off) to pump fluid into the pistons and force the air to the end of the system. Once you've got fluid as far as coming out of the bleed screw (and nowhere else!), the gravity process will work - but will take plenty of time to get all the air out.