Marlon Targa 86

Just finished another succesful DIY with the help of this awesome forum: bleeding the brake fluid.

It was so easy:

1. clamped the overfill thingy at the reservoir
2. jacked up the car/took off the wheels
3. hooked up the power bleeder, filled with fresh brake fluid
4. pumped it to 17 psi
5. bled all the brakes, starting with the wheel furthest away from the MC, also kept an eye on the bleeder reservoir fluid level and made sure no fluid came gushing out of the bottom of the car.
6. put everything back
7. slowly depressurized the bleeder, so no fluid came squirting out
8. done

The last side I "bled", the wheel closest to the master cylinder, had tons of air coming out. Quite a shock And the fluid was quite dirty/dark.

Went for a test drive and the brake pedal felt very firm.

Anyway, thanks again for all who gave me very useful advice,

Marlon

redridge

good job....

#1 is very important.... ask me how I know.

Marlon Targa 86

Your suffering cleared the way for us virgin "DIY" 'ers

That piece of advice and the fact you have to depressurize the bleeder very slowly, was advice I got here on the forum and made it so easy

911tracker85

a word of caution. replace the rubber tubing from the power bleeder to the reservoir cap before each bleeding. after a couple bleedings, my hose cracked and spewed brake fluid around.

appears the brake fluid deteriorates the hose that comes with the bleeder.

and when I want to just bleed a little fluid from each caliper, I fill the reservoir to the top and just put air pressure in the bleeder. have to top off the reservoir between calipers, but no need to have someone pump the pedal ( and risk damaging the MC).

ivangene

even easier...dont put fluid in the bleeder...just air

I figured that out and saved a bunch of clean up....just replenish the fluid in the master cylinder after each wheel...

good job...now what fluid did you use

whalebird

^^^thats what I do. I have 4 different motive dleeders. 3 dedicated to Porsche/ford/suburu, and one of the large universal with a variety of adapters. I just have to have a pressure bleeder.
One word of advice. When the car is up in the air with the wheels off and all the stuff is hooked up, take just a few minutes and bleed your clutch circuit if you are blessed enough to have the uber-fine G50 transmission. Also, use a catch bottle with a modest length of CLEAR hose on it attached to the bleeder. Yes it helps contain the mess, but also alows you to see the air bubbles as the leave the system. Motive makes a nice catch bottle, but I usually make my own out of an old 16oz Gatorade bottle with a hole drilled in it off to the side of the neck for the clear hose to enter...and a piece of coat hanger wrapped around the lip of the bottle and fasioned into a hook for hanging on the car.
Good job Marlon.

rusnak

A few more tips:

Replacement hose is available at any hardware store. Look for refrigerator hose.

When you disconnect the bleeder, dont unscrew the filler at the MC reservoir until you've first unscrewed the bleeder at the plunger handle. If you do this, all excess fluid will be sucked back into the bleeder, and you wont spill a drop of fluid, I promise.

Dont over pressurize the bleeder. Follow the instructions carefully on the side of the reservoir.

ivangene

+1 for those Rus...and 5-10 psi is plenty I have found...I am not in a hurry

rusnak

I found a similar issue via the brake proportioning valve, similar to the motorhome. The valve closes off the rear brake circuit, and tries to brake just the front wheels. To open the rear circuit, there needs to be enough pressure to open the valve. I found it might be necessary to pedal bleed the rear wheels.

Edit: oops, ya know I think I have that reversed. Under heavy braking the pressure is shunted away from the rear wheels. The valve should be open, but it does cause air bubbles to stick. I found that high pedal pressure does open the valve to allow more complete brake bleeding.

ivangene

is that a double negative reverse?

daylorb

Thanks for these tips - just flushed my new-to-me Spyder. Incredibly easy - particularly given the wheels I have leave plenty of room to reach the valve on the brakes without removing the tires. Great diy job.

I needed about one liter of fluid btw on a 987.2.

r911

just use a $10 garden sprayer

theiceman

you need a replacement cap you can put a fitting on and also put a gage on so you can see what you are pumping it to.

bpu699

Use 5 psi... At 15 psi if a line breaks you will have potential spray onto your paint and paint damage.

I also put the motive inside a large plastic tub in case it leaks in the frunk.

5 psi is more than adequate...

r911

cap yes; gauge no