MrFTOOO's Brake Upgrade!!

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:20 am

MrFT000 wrote:
Chiangstar Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:20 am Post subject:

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i think bleeding and changing the brake fluid would have made a lot of the difference in your brake pedal feel...

simon
I had my brakes bleeded a while back, but that didnt seem to fix it up. I cant remember what they said but they did something.

There are few method for bleeding the brakes, how did you do yours?

MrFT000 · Post by **MrFT000** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:37 am

I didnt bleed them myself -a mechanic did them for me.

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 12:40 pm

I am interested to learn about how to (different methods) bleed the brakes.

afterburner · Post by **afterburner** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 12:56 pm

I did mine by:

- Take the cap off the brake reservoir (not easy with a GPvR strut brace!)

- Start at the wheel furtherest from the brake fluid reservoir (the rear left).

- Take off the wheel and find the nipple on the brake line.

- I used a brake bleeding kit (which was basically a clear piece of hose with a valve on the end which I got from SuperCheap) - attach this to the nipple. Use some sort of container to empty the fluid into.

- Use an 8mm open ended spanner to loosen the nipple a bit.

- Get someone to slowly pump the brake pedal while you watch the fluid being expelled, make sure all air bubbles are being forced out.

- Make sure the reservoir level does not fall below the protective mesh, otherwise you may get bubbles in the fluid. Keep checking this and add new brake fluid as required.

- Pump pedal until old fluid is expelled.

- Tighten nipple and remove hose

- Repeat for other wheels, while moving closer to the reservoir - ie rear right, front left, front right.

- When finished, top up reservoir and replace cap.

I basically followed the instructions from www.autospeed.com and those that came with the brake bleed kit.

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:30 pm

Thank you Afterburner,

So the purpose of bleeding breaks is to get rid of any existing bubles in the braking system.

What are the indicators that there is a need to do bleeding?
Is it should be done after every break fluid change, or should be done more regularly?

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:59 pm

mxysxy wrote: What are the indicators that there is a need to do bleeding?
Is it should be done after every break fluid change, or should be done more regularly?

When your brake pads are fairly new, & the rotor is fine, but you don't get much stopping power.

Boris · Post by **Boris** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:29 pm

mxysxy wrote:So the purpose of bleeding breaks is to get rid of any existing bubles in the braking system.

What are the indicators that there is a need to do bleeding?
Is it should be done after every break fluid change, or should be done more regularly?

I think it should be done atleast on a yearly basis if you brake hard all the time. But normally they do it when ever you change your pads / rotors.

After a while of use brakefluid start to loose it's chemical properties i think, so after too much use, for example the boiling point drops, and it can become more like gue... so you become more prone to brake fade... I think... Brake specialists can test you brake fluids to c if it needs replacing.

Indicators that you may have is poor brake performance, brake fade on downhills is one too. etc. I would say if you don't know the history of your brakes to get them checked out anyway.