OK, I feel really stupid having trouble with what seems to be a pretty basic task. A friend and I decided to change my brake fluid today (we're doing his if we can figure out what we did wrong with mine =) ). I have a '93 BTW with no ABS. well, as far as I can tell we followed the direction (haynes and se-r.net), but I now have no pressure until the last inch or so of pedal travel. I can stop, and there's no sponginess, but I have to put the pedal to the floor. Also, it seems to pull to the right under hard braking. we bled the brakes until there were no bubbles. I am at a total loss (although that's not saying much). Any help would be VERY mucvh appreciated.

P.S. I used valvoline synthetic fluid

Sounds like you still have air in the system to me. At any point did you allow the master cylinder to get low and suck air in?

I use the same fluid, so it's not that.

Originally posted by MaddMatt
Sounds like you still have air in the system to me. At any point did you allow the master cylinder to get low and suck air in?


Nope, we were careful about that. It definately does seem like there's air in there. Should we just try bleeding them again? Ugh.

Originally posted by Parson


Nope, we were careful about that. It definately does seem like there's air in there. Should we just try bleeding them again? Ugh.

Are you pumping the brake with the bleed valve open? (I don't)

I have one person under car, one manning brake. Person under car calls the shots: "press" person in car presses brake (and hold pressed).
person under car lossens bleed valve till it stops flowing, and then immed tightens bleed.

Person under car calls "release".

Start over, next calls press, opens bleed, retightens before calling release.

In other words, never let off the brake press until bleed is tight again, with the thought that it will air back in from the bleed into the line otherwise.

Not sure what method you are using - so just posting my method.

you got air in the system somewhere on the left side. Right side is doing more braking causing it to pull towards that direction under braking.

Bleed wheels in this order. Pass rear, driver rear, pass front, driver front.

Also you can do like AC said or i kinda prefer two way communication.
Person at the wheels shouts down.
Person in side pumps brakes about three times then holds on the floor.
Person inside shouts "down"
person at wheel opens bleeder
once fluid flow stops close bleeder
yell ok and start over.

This is the best way i have found other than power bleeding. But that costs money and they usually won't let you use your own fluid.

Anyway good luck to ya.
Rick

Yes, if you let your foot off the brake pedal with the bleeder valve open, you can possible suck air back into the caliper, possibly around the threads of the bleeder screw.

The good news is if this is what happened, the air is right there at the bleed screw and will be easy to get out.

LOL i swear no matter how much i bleed them im never happy with my brakes. maybe time to adjust the MC some. But ive tried many different ways of bleeding and nothing works right for me. I let Eric do it and within about 2 times on each wheel they great.

Just make sure you didnt get any air in the MC. if so thats a pain to bleed...well messy to say the least. Id say keep trying. I use that fluid also and its great. Plus for the price I change my fluid out about every year, cant beat 5 dollars a quart. Its not motul or the ford HD but it usualy has a good feel to it and lasts atleast a year. I can tell when the fluid is getting old ***. It doesnt change color too bad just starts feeling good and mushy. Just keep trying, go buy another bottle or two of the stuff. When i did my AD22VF upgrade I went though a whole bottle bleeding the system makeing sure i had new fluid in it.

Originally posted by Rocketman
Bleed wheels in this order. Pass rear, driver rear, pass front, driver front.

Yes, rule of thumb is start with the caliper farthest away from the master cylinder, however, I believe the FSM recommends bleeding the B13 in the following order: Driver's rear, passenger front, passenger rear, driver's front.

http://www.se-r.net/brakes/bleeding_brakes.html

I believe the FSM recommends bleeding the B13 in the following order: Driver's rear, passenger front, passenger rear, driver's front.

That may very well be the case if they have the brakes set up as a diagonally split system.... hmmmm never checked to see on this car. Thanks for the info.

Rick

Thanks! Well, you were all right. Just had a bit of air still in the system. It's working great now. I'm not sure how air was still in there, or what we did wrong the first time, but all the air came out while bleeding the rears. Anyway, thanks again.