DIY - Stainless Steel Lines - Speed Bleeders - Fluid Bleed/Flush

[ft86Fan]

Thanks F1point4. Love your DIY series. Whats next?

[F1point4]

Originally Posted by ft86Fan

Thanks F1point4. Love your DIY series. Whats next?

I have a few things in the queue. I will give a hint that its all about suspension.

[themadpants]

Great write up!

All I can say to people who do there own brake work:

Buy the flare wrench. You will be glad you did when it saves your brake lines from stripped "bolt" heads etc.

It will be one of the better $10 to $20 you will spend! :happy0180:

[F1point4]

Originally Posted by themadpants

Great write up!

All I can say to people who do there own brake work:

Buy the flare wrench. You will be glad you did when it saves your brake lines from stripped "bolt" heads etc.

It will be one of the better $10 to $20 you will spend! :happy0180:

+1 to this, if you strip the nut on the hard line because you didn't use a flare wrench, you'll have a bad day.

[BigFatFlip]

Very nice write-up! I've just purchased my speed bleeders (used to have them on my bike) and they just make it so much easier, specially for cars. I'm planning on upgrading the brake fluid, and maybe better pads and swapping in SS brake lines, for my first HPDE.

Originally Posted by F1point4

+ The traditional method (2 player coop)
+ Speed Bleeder method (single player)

I

One tip I have when doing a flush is using a turkey baster to pull out most of the old fluid from the master cylinder, then refilling it with new (just a general tip, not sure if it will work for our cars, since I'm yet to look in there). You can then just keep an eye for the color change as you're bleeding, refilling as needed. As you've stated though, this might be a little difficult when doing a flush with a new car (newish fluid).

Also, may I request adding brake pad replacement and bedding? That would just make this Brake DIY so complete!

[cobrabyte]

I like to use ATE Super Blue when flushing the brake system because it's easy to see the new fluid (it's blue).

They also sell an amber variety for when you're going to flush the blue stuff. Just look for the color change.

[Hanakuso]

How did you properly torque the 10mm hardline nut?

Also, I noticed I overtorqued a couple banjo bolts. Should I just leave it as is or retighten them even tho they use crush washers?

[F1point4]

Originally Posted by Hanakuso

How did you properly torque the 10mm hardline nut?

Also, I noticed I overtorqued a couple banjo bolts. Should I just leave it as is or retighten them even tho they use crush washers?

For that we just did it by feel. I always have a policy that the owner should torque any non torque wrench able bolts to their satisfaction.

The service manual says 11 ft lbs so that's barely more than hand tight!


Id leave the banjo as is.

[F1point4]

Originally Posted by BigFatFlip

One tip I have when doing a flush is using a turkey baster to pull out most of the old fluid from the master cylinder, then refilling it with new (just a general tip, not sure if it will work for our cars, since I'm yet to look in there). You can then just keep an eye for the color change as you're bleeding, refilling as needed. As you've stated though, this might be a little difficult when doing a flush with a new car (newish fluid).

Also, may I request adding brake pad replacement and bedding? That would just make this Brake DIY so complete!

The Turkey baster extraction is spot on, I just lost enough fluid changing my lines I didn't need to extract.



Ill gladly do pad+rotor change DIY when someone on our team wants to do their pads....or when someone is generous to send me new pads *wink wink

[Dezoris]

Great write up on this

[Synack]

I love how far into the twins we are here in Texas. Doing literally everything to our cars. Houston especially.

[F1point4]

Just did pads, rotors, stainless lines, and a blue fluid flush on a R56 Mini Cooper S. my goodness ze Germans make things complicated. For those who care:

Main differences
+ Torx T50 to hold on the rotors - who has that socket. Ours just fall off
+ Soft Lines screw into the caliper and don't have a free turning connection. You have to twist the entire line to undo it. Thank goodness for the German's banjo bolt
+ Im mad at the stainless lines he bought. It wasn't a vendor I ever heard of...the rubber grommets that hold the line to the suspension weren't aligned and required the force of two titans to slide to the correct position.
+ blue Bremsflüssigkeit is awesome. Easy to see when new fluid has reached the caliper!

In my pregame, I notice there weren't many complete DIYs. I won't let this happen to our community

[soros151]

Awesome write up.

[F1point4]

Originally Posted by F1point4

For that we just did it by feel. I always have a policy that the owner should torque any non torque wrench able bolts to their satisfaction.

Please please, find torque values for the work you do to your cars. The owner did this to his Mini yesterday


20121027-ChantaR56BrakeSetback-01 by VictorN07, on Flickr


We didn't find good documentation for the rear brakes. Since the procedure was similar as the front, we assumed the torque values are the same as the front brakes. 81 ft lb was too much for the rear caliper bracket bolt. We found a replacement at Lowes to hold him over until the Mini bolt ($12) can be ordered in next Tuesday

20121027-ChantaR56BrakeSetback-02 by VictorN07, on Flickr


Thank goodness it didn't break inside the hub. It snapped after we removed it.