Bleed your brakes like a boss

[Camel]

Tried bleeding my brakes using the one man gravity method where you just crack the bleeder nipple open and let the fluid slowly drain out. Usually works flawlessly but this time my pedal was spongier than a sponge.

 

Then I had a thought, which was painful when I was washing my hands. Wonder if the liquid soap dispenser would be suitable to create a vacuum to pull the brake fluid through the system. So I took it out of the soap and put it into one end of some clear 5mm tubing and put my thumb over the end of the tube and pressed the dispenser. By gosh, it created a vacuum and tried to pull my thumb into the hole with no air leaks anywhere!

 

Tried it on the car but it didn't go so well sadly. But because the dispenser has a one way valve in it, you can press the brake pedal and fluid will come out of the dispenser, but air will not go back in.

 

 

1. Get some clear PVC tubing (fish tank tube/washer jet tube)
   
2. Cut it into 4 pieces and place one piece over each bleed nipple (hold the end in boiling water to soften it so it's stretchy before placing it on the bleeder, it will go on easy then try to shrink to it's original size once on the bleeder when it cools down creating a good seal)
   
3. Place the soap dispenser in the other side of the tube on the brake you're going to bleed (check vehicle manual for the correct bleed sequence)
   
4. Open the bleeder slightly, just enough for the fluid to come out. (only slightly so air doesn't get into the caliper past the thread)
   
5. Take the brake fluid cap off and ensure it's topped up throughout so you don't pull more air into the system
   
6. Pump the pedal repeatedly, slowly
   
7. When the fluid in the tube has no bubbles in it, close the bleeder and move the soap dispenser to the next tube/wheel
   
8. By using 4 tubes you can then go around all the wheels again quickly without having to play with your nipples again. :nods:
   

 

No more moaning assistant saying that their leg aches pressing the pedal for you or pints owed to any mates. From now on, bleeding brakes will only take 5 minutes for me to do.

 

I amaze even myself sometimes. Hopefully this helps somebody out. :)

[calster17]

Last time I bled the brakes on a car was the MR2 well over 6 years ago! Really just pneumatic brakes at work... :lol:

 

Thats actually an epic idea though!

 

8. By using 4 tubes you can then go around all the wheels again quickly without having to play with your nipples again. :nods:

 

Speak for yourself...

[TIMELESS]

Heh, nipple. :lol:

 

No but seriously that was some impressively resourceful thinking.

[Andreas¹]

You had me at "What's spongier than a sponge? A Camel's brakes." :D

[Ryzza5]

Or just buy a syringe from the hardware store

[Camel]

And do what with it? Make a vacuum, which didn't work for me even when using 5mm internal diameter tubing on an 8mm bleeder head. It pulled brake fluid from the caliper and also air from outside of the caliper so I ended up with more air in the caliper than I started with.

 

I also didn't need to go anywhere to get anything for this or buy anything. :hmmm:

[GTAMADDOG]

I just used the bodge-job way (naturally) when I did mine. A tube which was a tight fit over the bleed valve, a jar with some brake fluid in the bottom and the other end of the tube in that and then a bit of cooperation with someone else operating the brake pedal and wazza wazza bling bling any air goes into the fluid in the bottle and then rises and escapes. Worked well for me, but I like this idea so I might try it next time..