We used:
-A friend to pump the brake pedal
-Nulon Dot 4 brake fluid, 2 bottles, 500ml each
-10mm or 8mm spanner
-Small piece of fuel or vacuum hose to fit over the bleed nipple
-A jar or similar to bleed the fluid into
-A bottle or similar to dispose of the fluid correctly and safely
-A trolley jack
-Stuff to remove wheels
-Conventional garden hose
-Vanilla coke for energy and funnels
-Common sense, derp.
Step 1
Chock the front wheels so your car doesn't roll away. We're going to start with the rear left side as it's the furthest away from the master cylinder.
Step 2
Crack your nuts (the wheel nuts, or whatever tickles your fancy), place the jack underneath the rear of the car and start pumpin until the wheel is off the ground (derp). Remove the wheel and place underneath the car for safety if you don't like to live dangerously.
Step 3
Remove the dust cover on the bleed nipple, as shown here:
Step 4
Check your fluid level, and top up if need be. If you're lazy like me, your brake fluid will look like this and you probably should have changed it 20,000kms ago:
Step 5
Set up the hose, spanner and jar as pictured, lefty loosey, tighty righty! Get your friend to pump the brake pedal a few times to build up pressure in the system.
This is what a brake pedal looks like:
Step 6
Get your friend to push down and hold the brake pedal, while he/she/heshe/it is doing this, open the bleed nipple until the fluid comes out, at this stage the pedal will go to the floor. It is important that your friend doesn't release the pedal until you have tightened the bleed nipple again as this can let air into the system. Air in system equals
.EDIT, we have been advised that it is not recommended to push the pedal all the way to the floor as it MAY cause damage to the cups inside the bore. Only push the pedal as far it would normally go when braking.
Repeat the process until the fluid reservoir reaches the low marker.
Video for your convenience, communication is key!
http://www.youtube.c...u/0/rBXKggk9PwU
Your fluid will probably look like this:
Step 7
Make your funnel as pictured and collect and dispose of the fluid correctly.
Step 8
Re-fill the reservoir with fresh brake fluid and repeat the process.
After repeating the process a number of times, your fluid should run clean and come out like this:
Your reservoir will look like this:
Step 9
After the fluid is clean, tighten the nipple back up, replace the dust cover, and give the surrounding area a quick hose...and now it's natures problem!
Put the wheel back on and lower the car.
Step 10
Repeat the process on the rear right-hand side as it's the next furthest from the master cylinder.
Step 11
Move to the front left wheel and repeat the above processes again.
As you can see, my dust covers were missing on the front calipers. We encountered a problem where the fluid wouldn't come out the nipple (a common problem with new mothers). This was an easy fix, we removed the bleed nipple and cleared it out with some wire to remove the gunk causing the blockage.
Step 12
After the fluid has run clean on all of the calipers, and you've topped up your master cylinder reservoir, go for a boost and test out your handywork!
Crack a beer, then write a DIY thread on subyclub!
Cheers, Grant and Mark (Scuba-Roo)
