question about bleeding brakes

[Guest TurboSedan]

i've bled the brakes on my cars plenty of times but have an issue this time around....

 

while doing the front brake upgrade i replaced the brake hoses and all of the fluid drained out (oops). so yeah...the master cylinder went completely empty. well after compressing the pistons back into the calipers for the new pads the fluid level came back up - not to the full mark of course but at least it wasn't completely empty anymore.

 

should i just fill the master cylinder back up and bleed the brakes like normal? or am i going to have to remove the master cylinder completely and bench bleed it (that would SUCK).

 

thanks

[Guest TurboSedan]

anyone? sorry to be impatient but i'm gonna be bleeding these brakes within the next hour or two.

 

if all else fails i'm just going to bleed the brakes like i normally do and hope for the best.

[Robby1870]

As long as there was still fluid in there, I'd say just fill the reservoir and bleed normally. When I did the 94+ rears, I bled the rears like 10 times trying to get as much gunk out of there as possible and when I went to check the reservoir it was basically empty. I just filled it up and went on my way.

[Bossman429]

Since the fluid came back up, it's probably OK.

 

You don't need to remove the MC for a bench bleed, just bleed it by using the brake line fittings as bleeder valves...

That is:

Loosen the rear brake line from MC

press brake pedal to floor

tighten brake line, repeat

etc for the other line.

 

That will bleed the MC if there is any air in it.

 

Then bleed the brakes normally

 

You probably are OK on the MC, but if it were mine I'd bleed it to be safe.

[5speedz34]

Since the fluid came back up, it's probably OK.

 

You don't need to remove the MC for a bench bleed, just bleed it by using the brake line fittings as bleeder valves...

That is:

Loosen the rear brake line from MC

press brake pedal to floor

tighten brake line, repeat

etc for the other line.

 

That will bleed the MC if there is any air in it.

 

Then bleed the brakes normally

 

You probably are OK on the MC, but if it were mine I'd bleed it to be safe.

 

How do you plan on catching the fluid?

 

So let me get this straight, if the master cylinder goes completely dry you need to bleed the master itself? You can't just bleed the lines to get the air out?

 

Josh, I think you would be fine; but to be safe I would do what Bossman says.

 

[Bossman429]

If you run the MC dry it should be bled using the procedure I listed, It is much more reliable than trying to bleed the air from the MC all the way to the bleeders to release it.

[Guest TurboSedan]

i ended up bleeding the brakes like i normaly do (went over them twice), and so far they still feel a bit spongy. although, i only drove the car two blocks so that's not saying much. ALOT of air came out of the front calipers but not much from the rears. it may just be the new pads aren't set in yet. i'm going to try bleeding them again in a few days after i put some miles on the car. if they still feel a little spongy i'll do what Dave suggested. for the most part they feel normal though; meaning the car feels safe to drive for now.

 

thanks!