These F@CKing Brakes -> heavy bleed or what?

Dear All,

After a thoroughly frustrating day working on my station wagon lwb i have gotten absolutely no where!!

I have new hoses cylinders springs shoes pipes master cylinder, gone through 1 litre of fluid and still no luck

The pedal pumps up then sinks to the floor when i depress the brake pedal again. I have tried almost everything, reverse bleeding, starting at the back working to the front, slacking off all adjusters then rebleeding, using a friend, using an ezibleed ...

But then i clamped off the back hose and the pedal went firm, then clamped off the 2 front brakes and bleed the back again with adjusters fully out, pedal still firm, then released both front, pedal to the floor, then adjusted one firmed up, then magic pedal to the floor again... After much swearing and cursing and wanting to throw hammer through the windscreen.....

Has anyone got any clue what i should do?

Cheers,
Romeo

No, I don't have a clue, but I feel your pain.

I hate to ask, but have you successfully done this sort of thing before?

I done it once before on the same car and it was perfect, bleed the brake on my landy very successfully before, its not a hard job which is whats infuriating me so much. Even had the servo in pieces and thats all fine :/

This is a regular rant on here mainly with the 109s. Just why I do not know as I have never had a problem bleeding Landis brakes, I usually just open the bleed nipple and gravity bleed. Always a good "Pedal"

You want to adjust all brakes up start with cylinder furthest away from master cylinder and check no flexes hoses are ballooning up when brakes applied which I had on series 1 after changing all cylinders and master cylinder with No progress we noticed the pipe was ballooning up. It is very frustrating but stick with it and double check everything.

Divie, might give it a go tomorrow, do you open all 4 nipples? or one at a time and roughly how long to do it (just in case)

Flexi hoses seemed to all be ok will inspect again tomorrow and i know I've not got a leak because the res doesn't go down unless i open a nipple

Another thing to remember also is not to put brake fluid back through once it's been used it will full of air.

Used fresh from the bottle so far :/ its killing me because nothing makes sense

check your snail cams aren't worn and that it's all adjusted correctly

What manufacturer are the new hydraulic parts you have fitted?

Have all ways bled the gravity way as divie says, one at a time starting at the furthest from the master. Brakes all adjusted up and master cylinder rod correctly adjusted keeping res topped up. Couple of min's per wheel watching clear pipe on nipple until flowing clear of air.

^^^^ What tottot says gravity bleed one at a time. Works for me.

will try it thanks guys only thing is what happens if it doesnt work ... my parts were delphi and bearmach

I usually buy delphi cylinders, always found them to be good quality

RomeoV said:

will try it thanks guys only thing is what happens if it doesnt work ... my parts were delphi and bearmach

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On the odd occasions when I've bled my brakes I've managed to get a firm pedal. The clutch was a different matter and gravity bleeding sorted that after a few days of fiddling and faffing trying different methods....jacking up one side etc etc.
I usually opt to get the brake fluid changed by a trusty local garage who charges about £35 - £40 to do it. I'm happy to pay for it to be done at that price. Cheating though isn't it!

Pressure bleeding the system seemed to help although the pedal still travels way too far

its odd if you brake with engine off pedal is hard, when the engine is stared and the servo actuates it pulls the pedal low and you have to pump to get it firmer... any ideas?

And sorry for super delayed reply

RomeoV said:

Pressure bleeding the system seemed to help although the pedal still travels way too far

its odd if you brake with engine off pedal is hard, when the engine is stared and the servo actuates it pulls the pedal low and you have to pump to get it firmer... any ideas?

Click to expand...

Are your snail cams adusted properly? Badly adjusted brakes can eat up a lot of the pedal travel.

Well see i adjusted them as per normal but not done any mega mileage in it so i have no idea why that would be a problem now, worth a readjustment i guess