How much bleeding do I need?

[BRiley]

Replaced front rotors and pads yesterday. As I was compressing the piston back in, I had the bleeder screw open to avoid sending anything back up into the ABS system. This was out of an abundance of caution. I've never done this job before. I am pretty sure I took my clamp off the piston before I tightened the bleed screw. I am thinking a little air got in b/c my pedal is going about half way down before the pad grabs.

Knowing I only did front, do I need to bleed all four calipers? What about the clutch and ABS / DSC bleed procedure? Just want to make sure I'm not messing anything up.

Thanks all!

[Slideways]

When compressing the piston, you want to remove the cap off the brake fluid reservoir to displace the air/fluid. If the fluid level is very close to the top, you take a little out. You do not want to release the bleed screw on the caliper; otherwise, air can get into the system.

Motive power bleeder is a good tool to have for bleeding brakes.

[BRiley]

When compressing the piston, you want to remove the cap off the brake fluid reservoir to displace the air/fluid. If the fluid level is very close to the top, you take a little out. You do not want to release the bleed screw on the caliper; otherwise, air can get into the system. Motive power bleeder is a good tool to have for bleeding brakes.

Thanks. I ordered that for the bleeding. Think I need to do everything? Or just the fronts?

[Estoril]

You bleed after all brake work is done. Then start with the furthest caliper from the reservoir - rear passenger, proceeding to the next furthest, driver rear. Then front passenger, and lastly driver front. Bleed until you see no air bubbles. You may have to tap the caliper to be sure.

[jayjaya29]

You can probably get away with bleeding just that corner. See how the pedal feels after bleeding just that.

[01SG]

Motive power bleeder is a good tool to have for bleeding brakes.

That thing works great. Makes bleeding solo so easy.

[eacmen]

If you're going through the effort of bleeding might as well bleed/flush the whole system.

I prefer the two person method or if you have no friends then a one way check valve bleeder bottles. You'll get much firmer pedal than you'll ever get with a pressure bleeder.

If you do use a pressure bleeder I would fill it with 1.5L to do all 4 corners.

[dukeofchen]

If you're going through the effort of bleeding might as well bleed/flush the whole system.

I prefer the two person method or if you have no friends then a one way check valve bleeder bottles. You'll get much firmer pedal than you'll ever get with a pressure bleeder.

If you do use a pressure bleeder I would fill it with 1.5L to do all 4 corners.

First time I've heard of there being a difference, as someone who's only ever done one man pressure bleeds

[oceansize]

Use motive on all of my cars, no issues with pedal firmness.

[heinzboehmer]

I've never noticed a difference either.

Key for good pedal feel has been to hit the caliper with a couple different mallets/big wrenches while bleeding, to have it resonate at different frequencies and hopefully dislodge all sized bubbles.

[OldDominionB]

I use Motive w/no issues
+1 on bleeding all four corners

[eacmen]

Maybe I got a defective Motive bleeder. The one I have is a glorified garden sprayer. I've done dozens of brake bleeds with the Motive. On ones where the pedal was already stiff it was fine. On ones where there was air introduced into the system I would bleed 2L with the Motive and still had soft pedal.

A few pumps at each corner with pedal method would yield a stiff pedal again.

There is a big difference when trying to get stubborn air out with a pressure bleeder vs pedal. Pressure bleeder gives you max 15psi. With the pedal you can get up to 1000psi fairly easily. Stubborn air pockets in the system just bleed easier with the pedal method.

I got tired of wasting $80 SRF with the Motive. Now I just use the $10 one way valve on the bleeder bottle with some grease on the bleeder threads and call it a day.

[CarbonSchwartzenegger]

Sounds like I gotta get a motive...