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No brakes. Please help.


Carson

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Hello all. Thanks for the help. I recently went through all of my brakes. I changed the front pads and all of the rubber hoses front and rear. I blew out all of the hardlines with compressed air to make sure they were not blocked. And of course I’m putting in fresh brake fluid.

 

Unfortunately no matter how many times I go around the car and bleed the brakes I am not getting a pedal. Fluid seems to come out of the bleeding nipples on all but one wheel in the rear. I do have a new wheel cylinders for the rear but I didn’t want to do that today.

 

I appreciate your suggestions and thoughts. Actually planning to take it to Eurofest tomorrow if this is resolved. 

 

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You probably resolved this problem by now, but I'm thinking you have a bad bleeder on that one back brake.  Try removing the bleeder and blowing through it after poking around in the openings with a paper clip wire.  If the bleeder is open, it would have to be that wheel cylinder.  Nothing left to check, since you replaced all the flex hoses and blew through the hard lines. 

I had a similar problem, but it turned out that both flex hoses to rear lower control arms were totally plugged. 

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On 10/18/2019 at 4:06 PM, Carson said:

Unfortunately no matter how many times I go around the car and bleed the brakes I am not getting a pedal. Fluid seems to come out of the bleeding nipples on all but one wheel in the rear. I do have a new wheel cylinders for the rear but I didn’t want to do that today.

 

Edit: if you are unable to purge fluid (and unwanted air) from branch of hydraulic system related to the non-functioning wheel cylinder bleeder, contaminated fluid and air likely remain there.  Since air is compressible, enough air in any part of the system may yield a pedal that seems not to develop pressure. The fact that you opened lines and introduced compressed air into the system virtually guarantees no pedal pressure - absent bleeding of the entire system.  Otherwise, where do you suppose the contaminated fluid and air will go?

 

Again, eliminating this condition requires purging the fluid from the closed branch of the hydraulic system ending at the wheel cylinder.

Edited by avoirdupois
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1 hour ago, mlytle said:

Before swapping parts,. Op provided no detail on what process was used to attempt the brake bleeding process.  My vote is there is still air in system. 

And that's a cheaper fix!

 

:D

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Ray

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Two running things. Two broken things.

 

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If you blew out all the hard lines with compressed air, you must have done that from the end where the soft line attaches, otherwise you would have to remove the hardlines from the master cylinder and cleared them out from there.  with nothing to support this theory, It is possible by blowing back through the system you forced all the fluid from the master cylinder back into the resevoir.  if that is so, you would need to "bench bleed" the master cylinder to force all the air out with brake fluid, otherwise you'll always be introducing air into the system as you try to bleed.   Several discussions on bench bleeding on the web.

 

btw, normal procedure for standard brake bleeding is to go to wheel cylinder most distant from the resevoir and bleed, proceeding to that fashion until you reach the front caliper nearest the resevoir.

Gale H.

71 2002 daily driver

70 2002 malaga (pc)

83 320i (pc)

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On 10/18/2019 at 4:06 PM, Carson said:

Hello all. Thanks for the help. I recently went through all of my brakes. I changed the front pads and all of the rubber hoses front and rear. I blew out all of the hardlines with compressed air to make sure they were not blocked. And of course I’m putting in fresh brake fluid.

 

Unfortunately no matter how many times I go around the car and bleed the brakes I am not getting a pedal. Fluid seems to come out of the bleeding nipples on all but one wheel in the rear. I do have a new wheel cylinders for the rear but I didn’t want to do that today.

 

I appreciate your suggestions and thoughts. Actually planning to take it to Eurofest tomorrow if this is resolved. 

 

 

When I replaced the calipers, hoses, and wheel cylinders in my car, I did not get pedal the first time through the bleeding sequence. Did you adjust the shoes until they drag on the drums? That may help bleeding, you can readjust them later.

 

I didn't use a pressure bleeder, I just went around twice before I got pedal, then one more time until I got clean fluid from each corner. Make sure you're bleeding the front calipers in the correct order. Also make sure you're getting all of the bleeders closed in time.

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1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

Make sure you're bleeding the front calipers in the correct order.

 

The bleeding sequence for the calipers is Upper bleeder, Inner, Outer.

 

My vote is for using a pressure bleeder.

 

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Quote

Unfortunately no matter how many times I go around the car and bleed the brakes I am not getting a pedal. Fluid seems to come out of the bleeding nipples on all but one wheel in the rear.

 

Re-read original post requiring a modified response.  If you are unable to completely bleed the system, including the wheel cylinder, then by definition, the system cannot fully be purged of air or contaminated fluid.  Suggest you remedy your inability to bleed fluid (and air) from the culprit wheel cylinder before chasing other problems.     

Edited by avoirdupois
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21 hours ago, 71bmr02 said:

btw, normal procedure for standard brake bleeding is to go to wheel cylinder most distant from the resevoir and bleed, proceeding to that fashion until you reach the front caliper nearest the resevoir.

btw, that is an old myth that does not add value to the bleeding process other than to help you remember which corner you have done...

 

way back when there was only one brake line off the master and it split to all four corners of the car...the "furthest first" concept almost made sense.  nowadays even the "modern" 2002 has a separate line off the master for each front caliper and a separate line for the rears.  although the rears share a line, the line runs down the car to the center of the subframe and then splits to equal lines to each drum, so hydraulically, neither rear is closer to the master than the other.  

 

bleed brakes in whatever order you like...it makes zero difference to the bleeding process itself.....

 

 

Edited by mlytle
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16 hours ago, mlytle said:

 

bleed brakes in whatever order you like...it makes zero difference to the bleeding process itself.....

 

 

 

That's the method I use- in fact, I usually open up one bleeder on each circuit if I'm

using gravity for a fluid change. 

 

t

"I learn best through painful, expensive experience, so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth." MattL

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