Bleeding brakes - best practice / technique for UK S2K?
 

Hi all,

I've been doing some reading as my s2k is in need of a good bleed.

I recently had a caliper changed via a garage (needed help!) and when I left, the brake pedal felt awful. I mean really low.

We need to now bleed them but there seems to be lots of differing information on the interwebs and I've not actually done it before.

Is there a 'better' technique e.g. a pressurised bleed

Or is using the 2 person method on the brake pedal fine to do? Someone was saying this could cause damage to the slave cylinder..?


With regards to the order,

LF, RF, RR, LR?


Thanks for any pointers chaps!

Best method i have used so far is a vacuum bleeder.

It needs to be one thats connected to a compressed air source so that it pulls a constant vacuum. I just connect it up, crack the bleeder and carry on with some other jobs whilst occasionally topping up the reservoir. You can fully flush a caliper in minutes. I have never bothered following the order written down in the manual. Aslong as you flush plenty of fluid through you are normally fine.

I use this one

Mark, do you need a compressor for that, or can you run it in any other way?

Recently refurbed all 4 calipers, didn't do it in any order, Disconnected caliper, pushed a plastic bag over the bolt and back into the brake line(was left for 2-3 days), refurbed that caliper and then just gravity bled the caliper (in no order) and its as good as the first time i did it when i followed a guide giving a sequence. so from my findings, unless for some reason you have air already in the rest of the system, order did not matter.

You need a compressor unfortunately. I have used the manual type vacuum pumps and they are crap. Just end up with aload of mess.


This type might work better, i have used these to do oil changes in the past with good success. They pull a decent vacuum too.

Ah, decent sized reservoir that looks reasonable Thanks Mark.

without kit the best way is a gravity bleed

all four wheels off, car level on axle stands, just keep the reservoir topped up ans bleed each corner for a few minutes or until no more bubbles

i did this on my project one, worked brilliantly

edit to say its worth sucking the fluid out of the reservoir first then topping up with new

I bled my brakes last summer, I used the gravity method twice - on the brakes, and once on the clutch. It was crap.

I invested in a pressure bleeder from Sealey - VS820 - (it doesn't come with the right cap for the s2k you have to speak to Sealey separate and order it for like £25, or it comes in a set of 5 caps for like £80) and this gave me the best pedal feel the car's ever had, for both clutch and brakes. I highly recommend it. I went with ATE Type 200 fluid as I don't track the car but do autosolo and it has been fine.

iinteresting, it worked perfectly for me so i never needed to mess about with a pressure system. used it on two s2000s including swapping all calipers and an abs module on one..


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Looking to use something very similar to this soon when I sort my brakes. You dont happen to know which cap exactly is required for our cars do you ?

Thanks !