I don't mean that as cursing my retardation system just getting air and stale fluid out of the system.
Yesterday I took the Berlingo for what is these days an annual service.
Only supposed to be an oil change and inspection but it turned out to be three plus years since the brake fluid was changed. We've had no issues but knowing somebody who'd had brake trouble descending the road down from Alpe D'Huez it's not to be taken lightly so I said go ahead.
Was interesting as the waiting room had a window to the workshop so I could see the job being done.
I remember nigh on 40 years ago one of my flatmates had a dog of a Triumph 1500 that, apart from a rust patch on the roof where it was growing a sun hatch, had dodgy brakes. Three of us worked as a team to bleed them. Steve, the owner, in the driving seat. Other Steve, the only one who'd done this stuff before, superintended from the front and kept the reservoir topped up. As the skinny one I got the job of reaching underneath and manipulating bleed nipple, tubing and a jam jar to watch for the last bubbles and then clean fluid.
We got there in the end but only after procuring a slave cylinder service kit and renewing the seals.
Yesterday the tech did it single handed. After draining the reservoir with a turkey baster thing he attached a device like a garden insecticide sprayer that seemed to both add fluid and pressurise the system without needing an assistant at the pedal. He then went round the bleeds with a tube and a vessel for the waste fluid but which must have had a non return valve as it simply ran until he could see clean straw coloured fluid running out.
What stuff the yoof of today misses.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 6 Oct 20 at 20:43
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Such devices have been around since Jesus was in short trousers. My old man had one that hooked up to the spare wheel to pressurise it.
On the occasions I need to bleed brakes I just use the non-return valve job:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB0TMUu9Yqw
Works fine.
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>>My old man had one that hooked up to the spare wheel to pressurise it.
So did I. Genius labour saving device. Unless you let the reservoir level get too low.
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>>My old man had one that hooked up to the spare wheel to pressurise it.
Sounds like a Gunson Eezibleed. Could be a pig to get a seal on the reservoir cap and you only needed about 5 PSI in the spare wheel to pressurise it. Any more and you had brake fluid everywhere. Then you had to re-inflate the spare when you'd finished.
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I think you're right, I was an eezibleed. But I don't remember the 5psi bit.
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>>Could be a pig to get a seal on the reservoir cap
In the days when I used to do more car servicing, I used to get a spare reservoir cap for my make/model from a scrap yard and make it into a bespoke cap to use with the Eezibleed.
Some modern cars have to be hooked up to 'the computer' to bleed the brakes so I've been told, I think our Renault was one of those. Something to do with making sure the ABS actuators opened in the right sequence.
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>> >>Could be a pig to get a seal on the reservoir cap
>>
>> In the days when I used to do more car servicing, I used to get
>> a spare reservoir cap for my make/model from a scrap yard and make it into
>> a bespoke cap to use with the Eezibleed.
>>
>> Some modern cars have to be hooked up to 'the computer' to bleed the brakes
>> so I've been told, I think our Renault was one of those. Something to do
>> with making sure the ABS actuators opened in the right sequence.
>>
I have a Gunson Eezibleed which I use every year to push a quantity of fluid through the fleet's brakes. I came unstuck a couple of years ago changing the seals on the front calipers of the C8. I'd clamped the brake lines but one came adrift and emptied the reservoir onto the drive while I was having a coffee. I couldn't get a firm pedal and had to take it to a Peugeot specialist who had the equipment to tickle the ABS pump.
Recently Mrs H's C3 showed an ABS fault on the dash. Sensor, I hoped and gave to the local indie. ABS pump failed reports his equipment. I didn't like the new pump price so I got one from an Ebay breaker with a 90 day warranty.
So much for my regime of adding new to old fluid. At least all the bleed nipples worked when needed.
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Always was a faff and very much heath robinson having to bleed them. Although there's always another school of thought that you just left them as there's only a small to no chance of it actually causing a problem and at least a similar chance of causing damage changing it.
I remember Number Cruncher on here being of that mind set.
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My BMW specialist only charges 46 quid for a fluid change (it's due now) so there can't be much to it. They also have some procedure to run which exercises the Abs pump and resets the service indicator
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>> My BMW specialist only charges 46 quid for a fluid change (it's due now) so
>> there can't be much to it. They also have some procedure to run which exercises
>> the Abs pump and resets the service indicator
£49 at the Citroen dealer in MK. It was just interesting to be able to watch and how it can be done by one man in around 20 minutes.
Checking the bill I also notice there's a £10 'environmental' charge for Covid precautions. Those must be the most expensive bio-wipes on earth....
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The best reason for having a dealer fluid change is to avoid any dispute under an extended warranty when the ABS unit fails!
Good to hear that some dealers are doing the change properly, rather than just filling the reservoir with clean fluid.
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>> My BMW specialist only charges 46 quid for a fluid change
>>
Where do you take your car now Z? Since you fell out with the previous lot?
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>> >> My BMW specialist only charges 46 quid for a fluid change
>> >>
>>
>> Where do you take your car now Z? Since you fell out with the previous
>> lot?
I'm trying a BMW specialist in Camberley.
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>> I'm trying a BMW specialist in Camberley.
Be interested to see how they compare - decent specialists seem hard to find, and the good ones are sometimes not much less than a dealer. I’ve only used BMW specialists twice; once way back in 2010 when I had an ‘88 325i Touring that needed some work. The list of additional work they suggested would have shamed a BMW dealer! It’d gone in for a suspension refresh, and that ended up costing £1,300 or so by the time they’d finished. Car felt better after though. And then a couple of years ago when the front pads needed replacing on my M235i they quoted roughly half the price of the main dealer, assuring me that genuine parts would be used. So took it to them, but I’m pretty sure the pads weren’t genuine, or if they were then something else had changed. The brakes were not as good as they had been. They also forgot to reset the CBS monitor. They were also in a less convenient location and, while they did the work while I waited (went for a walk...) there was no option of a waiting room and coffee. So I’d be wary of using that particular one again either! I didn’t follow it up as I knew the car was going a few months after.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 8 Oct 20 at 13:00
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>> My BMW specialist only charges 46 quid for a fluid change
IIRC, Vauxhall charge £48.
Had to bleed the front brake on a motorbike once, but the bleed nipple had been snapped off. While pushing in the calliper piston, I ever so slightly slackened off the brake banjo connection until fluid started leaking from it, then nipped it up again. Result, a solid brake lever instead of a spongy one.
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>> >> My BMW specialist only charges 46 quid for a fluid change
>>
>> IIRC, Vauxhall charge £48.
And thats for a poor persons conveyance. £46 quid for a proper automobile is a real bargain then.
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>> And thats for a poor persons conveyance. £46 quid for a proper automobile is a
>> real bargain then.
At least my indicators came as standard, not optional extras.
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as long as keep the master topped up i guess you could just open a nipple and let. it drip out slow . one man job , just slower
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Bleeding Brakes - Lygonos
