Brake bleeding idiocy
Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 12:30 am
Only just found this section but I've had my fair share of stupid moments when fixing the car. No family in the motor trade so everything I've done has been self-taught, using taught in the loosest sense, it's more a case of dive in and have a crack. Got to love it though, the feeling of satisfaction and smugness that you've achieved something on your own. 
Also the feeling of your brake pedal slowly getting closer to the floor as you're going downhill and approaching a set of red lights at a crossroad....
I'd had problems with the NSR caliper binding on, hitting it with the tyre-iron used to work wonders but then I decided to get a refurb kit. Got the caliper off with a little struggle and fiddled around for an eternity getting the dust boots into place. Started the job at about 10am and after copious cig and coffee breaks it was done by 10pm, both rear calipers back on and bled... (along with a few other jobs on my list and a spot of lunch
).
Set off back home and the first half of the journey is uphill, no big deal, traffic is minimal as it was a Sunday night. But what goes up, must come down. Came down the other side of the hill and noticed my brake pedal was getting a little spongy, thought nothing of it as the brakes were still working, put it down to a poor bleed. Got down the hill using gears to help slow me and whipped round the roundabout no problem (first exit, easy). Only when I was on the main road, with lots of traffic lights, did the problems show. Each set of traffic lights was getting harder to stop at, and the pedal travelling further. Until I reached my road with zero brakes and a floppy pedal. Again, no traffic so rolled through the red light and up my street, parked on the drive and left it til the morning.
Woke up the next day, jacked it up, whipped both wheels off and immediately saw the problem, spanner still sat on bleed nipple of the last wheel I'd had off... pushing the wheel on and tightening it up the night before had cracked the bleeder. So every time I used my brakes it was peeing fluid out all over the place, inside of alloy covered, absolute mess. Don't think I realised how dangerous that was until I'd re-bled the brakes and felt a normal pedal again.
I read a post about leaving tools under the bonnet... the only tools left around this time were the spanner on the bleed nut and the spanner behind the wheel....
Also the feeling of your brake pedal slowly getting closer to the floor as you're going downhill and approaching a set of red lights at a crossroad....
I'd had problems with the NSR caliper binding on, hitting it with the tyre-iron used to work wonders but then I decided to get a refurb kit. Got the caliper off with a little struggle and fiddled around for an eternity getting the dust boots into place. Started the job at about 10am and after copious cig and coffee breaks it was done by 10pm, both rear calipers back on and bled... (along with a few other jobs on my list and a spot of lunch
). Set off back home and the first half of the journey is uphill, no big deal, traffic is minimal as it was a Sunday night. But what goes up, must come down. Came down the other side of the hill and noticed my brake pedal was getting a little spongy, thought nothing of it as the brakes were still working, put it down to a poor bleed. Got down the hill using gears to help slow me and whipped round the roundabout no problem (first exit, easy). Only when I was on the main road, with lots of traffic lights, did the problems show. Each set of traffic lights was getting harder to stop at, and the pedal travelling further. Until I reached my road with zero brakes and a floppy pedal. Again, no traffic so rolled through the red light and up my street, parked on the drive and left it til the morning.
Woke up the next day, jacked it up, whipped both wheels off and immediately saw the problem, spanner still sat on bleed nipple of the last wheel I'd had off... pushing the wheel on and tightening it up the night before had cracked the bleeder. So every time I used my brakes it was peeing fluid out all over the place, inside of alloy covered, absolute mess. Don't think I realised how dangerous that was until I'd re-bled the brakes and felt a normal pedal again.
I read a post about leaving tools under the bonnet... the only tools left around this time were the spanner on the bleed nut and the spanner behind the wheel....
