white out

this is what I do too

RV4Flyer

Timely discussion, I just bled my brakes yesterday...or attempted it anyway. First if you have not done it before don't make my rookie oopsie and miss the hidden second bleed valve on each caliper.

Per recommendations I purchased a Motive Power Bleeder and found it extremely easy to use. Get the one with the European cap. They are very reasonably priced at $55. With it empty I pumped up to 20psi then opened the rear right caliper bleed valve and bled until the fluid in the reservoir was about empty but not completely so as to introduce air. From there I filled the Motive with fluid and proceeded. There are plenty of youtube videos on the Motive if you are curious what it is and how to work it.

Something else I found is if you can get a small tube, there is a slot on the aft side bottom of the insert in the reservoir that it will fit into and go to the bottom. From there you could always siphon the fluid out.

bcgreen

Nice info. I am borrowing a friend's pressure system to do my brakes next weekend, so this is really helpful.

perryinva

No turkey baster will fit in the 996 reservoir. I use a Motive, and alternate Blue/ Gold also. But I bleed the old fluid out the front driver side caliper. Why drive the old fluid out the back? You can easily see the reservoir while doing the front, and then add new fluid and bleed the front until color change. THEN do the normal sequence, and a short re-bleed of the front if you are worried.

jordanturbo

I believe the capacity of our cars is somewhere in the neighborhood of 400-600ml. can't remember specifically off the top of my head. when i flush I will use one of THESE and bleed 2 500ml bottles through the system. Brake fluid is relatively cheap, and this is an uber easy way to go about flushing the system. Plug in air hose, put nipple on bleeder valve, crack the valve, keep reservoir topped of, close valve, change caliper, repeat.

John's 991

+1 on the Mityvac kit. Works great and makes bleeding (both sides of the calipers) very easy. They have a kit to keep the master cylinder full while bleeding making it even easier still.

heligear

My 2$ worth, use the syringe with a small flexible tube as described and a pressure bleeder, pressure bleeder is better than vacuum in my opinion, it forces any air through the system and don't forget to do the clutch as well, all part of the same system

alpine003

I really don't understand why people just don't pump the old brake fluid through the brake lines and out the calipers. Amazing something so trivial has already taken two pages of discussion. My $.02

Gator996

Concur. Bled mine last week. The wife got to spend some quality time with the car pushing the pedal up and down. I am also using ATE blue.

white out

+1
The rest is a waste of time.

fun story: I did a brake job on my dad's '07 Tahoe that had ~ 95k miles on original brakes. Below is what the rear fluid looked like after a few seconds of air came out of the bleeder. I definitely didn't need Motul blue to decipher the new and old fluid. lol

jordanturbo

oops double post

jordanturbo

I agree to an extent, I use a vacuum bleeder since I can do it myself without an extra person pumping pedals, and it is a lot less messy. otherwise like you said, new in the top, old out the bleeders. As far as the brake fluid in your fathers tahoe being easy to differentiate,yes that is, bu for those of us that do flushes more regularly it can be a little more difficult to differentiate. I do mine usually once a year or so in my P-car since I tend to drive on it hard, then every 2 years on my and my fiances other vehicles.

Black_on_black

For me, my wife doesnt really want to sit there an hour pumping away (if I get an hour's worth of quality one-on-one time with her I want her pumping something else if you know what I mean )).

secondly, creating a vacuum usually means it sucks air in the threads on the bleeeders. Never been able to get that to work reliably to ensure no air in system.

Ymmv and .02c yada yada

Mike

white out

Oh yes, for all my cars I go between Motul & Motul blue for ease of bleeding since I change it so often. I had ordered blue for my cars and figured I would make life easy on myself and give the Tahoe some good fluid (vs. some cheap over the shelf fluid) and go blue. Definitely wasn't necessary.

alpine003

Motul on a Tahoe? Man you have the $500 Monster Speaker Cable syndrome. j/k