Bleeding Brakes

[pzero]

Following the excellent detailed instructions on the elisenet website to the letter, I spent Sunday morning draining the brake system and fitting stainless steel hoses on my S1. However, despite bleeding each wheel several times I can't get the brake pedal to go firm. I've wound in the rear pistons and clamped them in place, and put blocks of wood between the front pistons and inverted them whilst bleeding. I've bled each wheel in the order specified until no air was coming out (and kept bleeding to be absolutely certain there was no air). I've used about 1.8 litres of brake fluid. Any suggestions what I could try next.

[Bootsie]

Sometimes if the master cyl has lost all the fluid the seals tend to collapse and dont seal against the bore. The best thing in my experience is to nip to halfords or such-like and buy a gunsons pressure bleeder for about 15 quid. This works brilliantly and its good for changing the cluch fluid at the same time, which always gets manky and works hard on the long line.

[pzero]

Thanks for the suggestion but I've been using a Gunson's pressure bleeder.

[dss123]

Sounds like a bit of a pain mate.

I had a similar problem when I did the same job a few months ago, pushed loads of fluid through the system and just when I thought it was running through clear, I suddenly got a load more air through! Same with the clutch.

Does sound like you've put a lot of fluid through and have done all the right things?

Are your pads new? If very worn you will need a good few presses of the brake pedal before it firms up.

Sorry can't be more help.

Duncs