Brake bleeding questions

I have a couple questions about bleeding my brakes. I replaced all the flexible lines for my brakes with braided stainless steel lines. I put in new rotors all the way around and new pads. I also installed speed bleeders, and have a manual transmission, which I understand uses the same fluid reserve as the brakes. I've already cleared the lines from the master cylinder all the way to the calipers, so I'm effectively replacing all the brake fluid.

So my questions are:

1. Is there any special order I need to follow when bleeding the brakes? I know on my old Vette you had to start with the wheel furthest from the master cylinder (right rear) and work your way to to closest (left front).
2. Will I need to bleed the clutch, and should I do that before or after bleeding the wheels?
3. I plan on using a synthetic DOT 3 brake fluid. Is there any benefit to DOT 4 or DOT 5.1 fluid?

Thanks in advance!
Mark

1, yes, farthest wheel from master first. However, which rear you bleed first does not really matter if you have abs.
2 dot 4 has higher boiling point. Do NOT put 5.1 in there.
3 no

Juice said:

1, yes, farthest wheel from master first. However, which rear you bleed first does not really matter if you have abs.
2 dot 4 has higher boiling point. Do NOT put 5.1 in there.
3 no

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Thanks!

General rule for bleeding is R/R, L/R, R/F and then L/F. Like stated with the ABS it won't matter for the rears. Not sure how you are bleeding, however I would suggest to go ahead and gravity bleed first before doing any pressure bleeding. Following the rotation, open the bleeder and let fluid drain. If you watch closely, you will see air bubbles coming out. Close the bleeder and more on to the next wheel.

Mark_K said:

I have a couple questions about bleeding my brakes. I replaced all the flexible lines for my brakes with braided stainless steel lines. I put in new rotors all the way around and new pads. I also installed speed bleeders, and have a manual transmission, which I understand uses the same fluid reserve as the brakes. I've already cleared the lines from the master cylinder all the way to the calipers, so I'm effectively replacing all the brake fluid.

So my questions are:

1. Is there any special order I need to follow when bleeding the brakes? I know on my old Vette you had to start with the wheel furthest from the master cylinder (right rear) and work your way to to closest (left front).
2. Will I need to bleed the clutch, and should I do that before or after bleeding the wheels?
3. I plan on using a synthetic DOT 3 brake fluid. Is there any benefit to DOT 4 or DOT 5.1 fluid?

Thanks in advance!
Mark

Click to expand...

From my past experience, don't use speed bleeders. When opened to bleed brake line they let air into fluid so you will see air bubbles in line. You'll waste a lot fluid waiting for clean flow. Best bet is to use pressure bleeder. Works much better and you don't need a 2nd person pushing down brake pedal.

Simple gravity bleeding gets almost all the air out.
Personally, I try to minimize bleeding required by not letting the system go dry. I also gravity bleed when changing brake fluid. It maybe a bit slow, but I dont mind.

Juice said:

Simple gravity bleeding gets almost all the air out.
Personally, I try to minimize bleeding required by not letting the system go dry. I also gravity bleed when changing brake fluid. It maybe a bit slow, but I dont mind.

Click to expand...

Good point. DO NOT let the master cylinder go dry. You will air bound the system

I had my braided brake lines installed by the Ford dealer and didn't see how they did it, but I put them on my 97 Mustang Cobra and had such a problem I took them off.
The Mustang uses the master cylinder to feed the brakes and also the clutch. I did a lot of high speed corner carving and lost the clutch more than once...I attributed it to using the Brembo's hard enough it got the fluid hot and caused the clutch slave cylinder to not function properly. I added a second reservoir for the clutch only and didn't have any more issues.

I may have to try separate clutch reservoir. Once I get around to replacing the master. Had low clutch pedal at WGI last year, but it fixed itself.

I've had speed bleeders, and they were ok. I use a tube with a check valve, and it's less mess than speed bleeders. FIRST INFO is a lot more complex, and it's <$20.

I prefer a Vacuum Bleeder. I suck the old fluid outta the reservoir, refill & the do RR LR RF LF. I put a stainless line on my clutch slave when I replaced it & it has a bleeder on it. I use Dot 5.1 in my Bullitt & F250 & other Mustangs for the higher boiling point.

I have used a vacuum bleeder too. It works great, but it's slower that the tube with the check valve. The nice thing is that you can use the vacuum for other things too.

I use gravity bleeding and start with FL, because it's faster to get new fluid in master cylinder and ABS, than go to RR, RL, FR. I use DOT 4+, it is like 4 but with lower viscosity and my Mercedes needs it. I did vacuum bleeding before but had always air coming trough the bleeder valve threads.

I like that with a syringe (did not try myself)