Hi,
I recently did my brakes on my 850 turbo. I accidnetly opened up the rear calipers, i found out later that this is not a good idea. I did a manual bleed job but the brakes work but the pedal goes all the way too the floor and the car brakes very slowly. I was wondering if you could tell me how to rememdy the problem. I am in the midst of buying a power bleeder from Motive and also some superblue fluid as well. I have already ordered a caliper repair kit for the rear as suggested by another post found on Ozbrick.

thanks

Sadude

Hey

I just finished bleeding my brakes with motive power bleeder and it was so easy. No problems at all. It's a little tricky to take it apart if you have fluid left in the container at the end, otherwise, its childs play.

My brakes work fine now but I think I will still repair the rear calipers when my kit comes in.

Thanks for everybodys help, oh btw I didn't see two bleeders on the rear calipers like someone else had mentioned.

Sadude

I recall reading here that the rear caliper has two bleed screws.
An upper and a lower. Might make sure you bleed both. Just a
thought.

Hi,

Thanks to everybody for there help. I really appreciate it. I didn't see the bottom bleed valve but I will look for it. I went ahead and already ordered the powerbleeder from motive and also got the rebuild kits for the rear brakes. I will try the bleed first, if it works, good news for me.

Sadude

How much was the bleeder (can you buy it online?)and where did you buy the caliper re-build kit. I have a T5 wagon that has both inside claiper pistons seized and needs a rebuild.
Sounds like i may be having fun like you soon.
Thanks for the info.
Jeff W
1994 T5 Sedan
1994 T5 Wagon

Jeff

sorry about the late reply but nonetheless, the power bleeder is from motive products. its called a power bleeder. you should definetly buy it with some fluid, and save some cash.

the rebuild kit can be bought from the dealer but you can save life half the money and get it from carparts.com. its called a caliper repair kit. if you need to rebuild the piston and the boots, they have that to. if you need details as to what is in the kits, just called the number there and they will tell you the contents of the kits.

best of luck

Sadude

IT takes 2 people to do a manual brake bleed. it's almost impossible to do a really good job with just one person. Air leaks through the bleed screw threads and ruins the job.

When you do rebuild the caliper, be sure to prefill it with fluid. I haven't played with my rear brakes yet, but make sure that you have all the air out. I once had an old toyota where the bleed screw was on the bottom of the caliper. great for flushing out crud but impossible to bleed air from the system.

For a 2 person brake bleed this is what you do.
Person #1 sits in the car and slowly begins to push the brakes. Slowly means about 4-6 seconds from start to floor. As #1 starts to push he yells OPEN. #2 now opens the bleed screw. When #1 has pushed almost to the floor he yells CLOSE. #2 now closes the bleed screw. #2 now yells CLOSED. #1 can now (and not before)remove his foot from the brake pedal. The idea is to keep the system under pressure at all times when the system is open. Stop every 3 cycles and add more fluid. If the bowl goes dry you get to start all over again.
--
Nathan Valles, Black 855R, Tint

Valles,

The bleeding method you suggested is tried-and-true. It was practically a weekly ritual with my British cars of the '50s and '60s.

And the problem you describe associated with the single-man vacuum bleading procedure, is a real pain. But I think the problem has less to do with the one-man-style of operation and more to do with the vacuum setup.

The Motive bleeding system, which Sadude refered to, uses positive pressure, rather than vacuum. It is the way to go and will not suffer from the bleeder screw thread problem you mentioned.

I use the vacuum method, but before I start, I goop-up the bleeder screw threads with brake grease in an attempt to seal them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

By the way, the two-man method has one MAJOR drawback. After 50-, 60- 70-thousand miles, master cylinders develop wear ridges in the areas where the piston is used to traveling. And contaminants sometime settle in the areas of the piston bore where the piston never travels. When you use the two-man method, and push that piston into virgin areas of the master cylinder bore, you do microscopic damage to the master cylinder piston seals.

It is quite common the find master cylinder failures within months of a hydraulic repair when the system was bleed using a two-man method (where the original master cylinder was retained).

Ken