It's so simple and easy. Why hasn't anybody before this think of it?
Cheap and easy brake bleeder
- Thread starter Mooseman
- Start date
Blckshdw
Moderator
But that puts the mrs. out of the only job she does with any of our vehicles-helping with bleeding of the brakes!!! It's one of the few things she listens well to-I tell her to push down on the brake pedal and she does and after I tighten the bleeder screw tell her to slowly raise her foot up and compress it again. I guess she'll lose the only job she ever has had in the automotive trade. 
Mike534x
Member
- Apr 9, 2012
- 918
Oh damn....this is going into the "useful" YouTube playlist. Actually crazy how simple and effective it is.
Yeah, I know. I was just like, wow! I had been using the same method using a vacuum pump and the included canister. I use Teflon tape on the threads to try and stop the air bubbles coming from the bleeder threads but I still get them.
The only thing I would add is that if replacing a major component, like a caliper, to do an initial fill/bleed of it with the pedal as it would take a while with that little pump.
The only thing I would add is that if replacing a major component, like a caliper, to do an initial fill/bleed of it with the pedal as it would take a while with that little pump.
- Jul 22, 2015
- 2,724
I'll be the contrarian here, because... that's my job! LOL
My concern is him saying (at least 3x; I lost count)... "don't worry about seeing bubbles; they're past the master cylinder."
Well, isn't that the reason we're bleeding them in the first place? We don't want air in the lines?
I'm also thinking that air, if left in the lines, could eventually travel up to the master, and reside in there? And that's bad, too (being a person who recently had to bench bleed one, due to a leak in one of the lines -- which was admittedly introduced via air from the cylinder end, due to loss of fluid).
Perhaps I'm overthinking it. He may be implying that you're removing the air... but he doesn't explicitly say "bleed until you don't see any more air". Which might send the wrong message to less experienced DIY'ers?
Other than that, kudos to him for showing a new, inexpensive take on "use vacuum to purge air from the brake lines". So often, we learn "right tool for the job", and make the spend -- as he shows, sometimes unnecessarily.
I doubt the 'pros' would do it this way (both from a potential liability issue, and a tax writeoff for tool spend), but for the shadetree who knows what s/he's doing, the "how" can be secondary to the what / why.
There's a reddit group I follow called "Just rolled into the shop". Some of the stuff I see there amazes me (and I learn some things, too).
My concern is him saying (at least 3x; I lost count)... "don't worry about seeing bubbles; they're past the master cylinder."
Well, isn't that the reason we're bleeding them in the first place? We don't want air in the lines?
I'm also thinking that air, if left in the lines, could eventually travel up to the master, and reside in there? And that's bad, too (being a person who recently had to bench bleed one, due to a leak in one of the lines -- which was admittedly introduced via air from the cylinder end, due to loss of fluid).
Perhaps I'm overthinking it. He may be implying that you're removing the air... but he doesn't explicitly say "bleed until you don't see any more air". Which might send the wrong message to less experienced DIY'ers?
Other than that, kudos to him for showing a new, inexpensive take on "use vacuum to purge air from the brake lines". So often, we learn "right tool for the job", and make the spend -- as he shows, sometimes unnecessarily.
I doubt the 'pros' would do it this way (both from a potential liability issue, and a tax writeoff for tool spend), but for the shadetree who knows what s/he's doing, the "how" can be secondary to the what / why.
There's a reddit group I follow called "Just rolled into the shop". Some of the stuff I see there amazes me (and I learn some things, too).
I use an electric vacuum pump and a fluid separator. Especially when replacing calipers or flushing the system your hand would get tired from all that squeezing.
Which is why I mentioned this:
The idea here is doing it on the cheap by yourself. An electric pump is nice but not everybody has one.