changing calipers and bleeding?

[irondiezl3]

can i take my old front calipers off first trade them in so i dont pay that core charge then put new ones on. my buddy says it will put to much air in system and cause alot of issues thats regular bleeding wont fix?

[Lucalare]

You could do this then do a full flush and fill of the front system. with enough bleeding you can get all the air out, as long as you don't have the engine running. You could also just put a vice grip on the rubber part of the brake hose closest to the caliper, or once you have the caliper off plug the brake hose with something till you get the new one.

[irondiezl3]

:/ i have stainless steel lines. so technically he is right?

[Lucalare]

No, you'll just have to bleed it pretty thoroughly once you put the new ones on. There's no such thing as problems that can't be fixed by bleeding as far as air in the lines go. It'll just probably take longer than a normal bleeding will. Get a friend with a strong leg.

[lord2heart]

No, you'll just have to bleed it pretty thoroughly once you put the new ones on. There's no such thing as problems that can't be fixed by bleeding as far as air in the lines go. It'll just probably take longer than a normal bleeding will. Get a friend with a strong leg.

i had to get a new caliper too and it took a bit to get the air out. also, while your at it, do a flush

[alerored04]

The new caliper will need to be bled extremely well anyway. I did it your way and had no issues.

[irondiezl3]

so if it all drains out how much fluid should i buy also adding in the bleeding?

[billytheman1188]

so if it all drains out how much fluid should i buy also adding in the bleeding?

perfect question....i was wondering the same thing cause when i re-do my brakes im gonna put new fluid in....

[irondiezl3]

this is so random but i love the lok of your aleri billy! im just going to buy like 5 of the big bottles :/

[cherrington17]

5 bottles?! it takes 1 to fill it!!

you'll need like... 2 at most.

[lord2heart]

5 bottles?! it takes 1 to fill it!!

you'll need like... 2 at most.

1-2 for bleeding or flushing?

[cherrington17]

both! why would you flush into a non clean container, so that you can't reuse the fluid???

if clean goes in, clean comes out. duh. save it

[alerored04]

Cherry is right, A full flush will need two. Just a bleed until you get the right color should not take more than one.

[[ion] C2]

I needed 32oz to do a full bleed and replace existing DOT 3 fluid with DOT 5.1.

[lord2heart]

ion, there a difference between the two?

ex. longevity, brake power, etc..

[TdotAlero]

ion, there a difference between the two?

ex. longevity, brake power, etc..

It has a higher boiling point.

[Caboose73]

both! why would you flush into a non clean container, so that you can't reuse the fluid???

if clean goes in, clean comes out. duh. save it

You shouldnt reuse brake fluid cause it will absorb water and have a lower boiling point which can be very bad.

[Lucalare]

You shouldnt reuse brake fluid cause it will absorb water and have a lower boiling point which can be very bad.

So put the cap back on the bottle.

[cherrington17]

You shouldnt reuse brake fluid cause it will absorb water and have a lower boiling point which can be very bad.

how are you introducing water into the fluid? if its a clean catch container, and your brake system doesn't have any water in it...?


and if your claiming its pulling it from the air, well... none of us can change a car's fluids in a vacuum sealed laboratory setting. i'm sure they took that into consideration.

[Caboose73]

Google it and ask any mechanic and every one will tell you not to reuse it cause it pulls moisture out of the air. Im not trying to fight with anyone im just posting what should be done if he wants to reuse the fluid and not spend the $8 on a new bottle then i could careless its his car.

Edit: and theres a little bit of a difference from pouring it right into the res and closing the cap and letting it drip out of your lines in to an open container

[cherrington17]

i'm not arguing either... but considering how "lack" of performance our cars are, having it bleed into a container and pouring it back into the resevoir isn't going to cause your breaks to fail...

how much of a difference can it take being in the air, for that long? 10-20* drop in bp? Realistically, I'm just looking to save the kid a few bucks. I've done that, and my brakes still work just fine.

If i(or he) was more modded for speed, where braking becomes a high priority.. i would suggest a new bottle, or a dot5.1 like ion uses. but its simply not the case here.. imo.

[irondiezl3]

bleeding sucks is there some trick to it? we did one side at a time but pedal is still terrible.
heres the setup- r1 concepts drilled rotors, ss stainless steel lines, apex kevlar pads, napa eclipse calipers. all just put in. wierd we bled these like crazy went through 3 bottles no leaks at all but pedal goes very low twice as low before with old brakes. everything is connected right. did a search seems alof of people have this issue and most replies were about bleeding. idk how much more bleeding we can do im just wasting new fluid from what ive hear 3 bottles should be plenty. any tips ideas?

[cherrington17]

your doing them in the right order, right?

and you have both bushings between the brake line and the caliper tight with no leaks?

[irondiezl3]

i almost forgot to put the new buchings on yeah they are on i wanted to toghten the effin sh*t out of them but he wouldnt let me they are deffinantly tight we checked for leakes after reaching full temp and there doesnt seem to be any. i watched some videos on youtube just to see how others do it and its the same as we did. we must have bled them 40 times each side maybe even more. the fluid was new sealed. wierd i doubt its my master cylander because my brakes were fine before.

i know they say farthest from the master to the closest for the order but we only changed out my fronts so we did passanger then driver

[cherrington17]

i did that, and one of my back ones needed to be bled, for the whole system to pressurize.

i'd do those, just to be sure.

[irondiezl3]

he thinks it might be because instead of opening the bleeder 1/4 of a turn we opened it all the way and pushed the pedal all the way down instead of most of the way down.

[Redog]

Yeah that's WAY too much!!

I was going to put on my brakes today, I get the caliper off, still 50% pad left :mad:

Now I wonder where that metal to metal sound was comming from :eek:

look at this video on Youtube. This is the way I was going to do it today if I replaced the calipers. Dude looks stoned as hell, but he explains it well. I never replaced a caliper before, but after watching this I was ready to do it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf1iPbeg778

I broke my air ratchet today too :( and those 15mm bolts would not budge

[irondiezl3]

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/3/3271/2969/33176484002_large.jpg
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/3/3271/2969/33176484001_large.jpg

sorry these are so huge :/ these calipers came like this i loved them

[cherrington17]

get the bleeding straightened out?

[robalero]

don't use a air ratchet to take the bolts out, only once they are free'd up. changing calipers and pads is real easy so is the wheel bearing on these cars I was quite surprised

[irondiezl3]

we r trying again tomorrow morning cherrington i hope all goes well :/

[Lucalare]

Looks good, those colors should go well with your car.

[Cliff8928]

Love the brackets painted black, to me they don't look right when they're the same color as the caliper... Mine were installed raw so they look all nasty now.

[Redog]

^^ Yes I like that too.

That's why I paint the bracket black and the Caliper another color

[irondiezl3]

i didnt even paint them that way though they came like that way to go napa! i hate the red but the pads came like that :/

[cherrington17]

Love the brackets painted black, to me they don't look right when they're the same color as the caliper... Mine were installed raw so they look all nasty now.

i can tell mine were iron (or a derivative of) since they turned a nice orange color within months.

I think i'll paint them the next time i do my brakes...

[irondiezl3]

epic fail now they are even worse. my master cyl has to be bad.

[rustyballs_69]

Are the calipers on the right sides? If you have them on backwards you will probably never get all the air out of the system. I can't see from the picture.

[irondiezl3]

how would you know the bleeder is on top on both sides thats the only thing i can think of to determine if they are on correct?

[cherrington17]

thats how mine are. take the caliper off and see if the cylinder is moving? (don't pump all the way!)

[irondiezl3]

it must be cuz they move when im bleeding them you can see them moving. funny i didnt even think about putting them on backwords but we made sure the bleeder was on top it looked like thats all that would be affected

[Gr1m]

you must be doing something wrong.

start away from the master cyl, and work your way closer to it. you should only have to do this maybe 2-3 times if you have a lot of air in your system.

you are pressing down and holding on the pedal before you open the bleeder screw right? the person steps on the brake to the floor, you open the bleeder and then close the bleeder. do this a couple of times until theres no more bubbles splattering out, have them pump the pedal a few times and then start bleeding until no more bubbles.

[Lucalare]

And make sure you close the bleeder screw before they let the peddle back up, or else you just suck more air in (sorry if you already know this, just trying to be helpful).

[irondiezl3]

non thanks i appretiate all help yeah that what we did we tried it two ways one with pushing pedal slowly and one doing it fast. did it probably 100 times to each side went through 6 bottles of fluid. thats y im wondering if its master cyl.

[Lucalare]

That's the most likely culprit then.

[Mike The Canadian]

Hey, I've never bled the brakes on an N-body but I've heard the abs needs to be activated to get the air out of it as well? This could be the culprit? I heard you need some sort of computer to tell the pcm to activate it?

I could be talking out of my ass, but I think this could be the issue; Someone please chime in if they know more?

[Lucalare]

That's only on some Cadillacs and high end Buicks, definitely not an Alero which is like the cheapest of cheap for GM in it's day.

[irondiezl3]

found the issue it was rear shoes out of adjustment and one of the lines wasnt tight enough re bled adjusted seems to be nice so far i appretiate everyoones help. im concerned about the line that was lose it seems to be rusting internally even thought its stainless steel line wierd.

[irondiezl3]

if i have new pads rotors calipers and brake lines then how would they be squeeling they have anti squeel compound on them and everything is new they squeel at very low speeds like at a red light wierd?

[cherrington17]

check your rattle clips, in the top of the caliper. (where the top of the pads seat)

it also could just be the new-ness wearing off the equipment. give it some break-in time.

[irondiezl3]

you know what thats what it is this happened before and they were just slightly bent tiny bit ur always right cherr