If the brake pedal in your car has become soft over time, or your brakes don’t feel as tight and immediate as they used to be, you may need to bleed your brake fluid. The brake fluid in your car builds up contaminants and deteriorates over time, making it less effective. It is important that you flush it frequently to keep your pedal feeling like new.
Road & Track spoke to Kevin Hines, Senior Technician at McLaren Philadelphia, to learn how to properly and safely bleed your brakes. Hines is North America’s only factory-certified McLaren F1 technician, which means his day job is working on $ 20 million worth of exotics. If anyone understands how to flush brake fluid, it is them.
Before reading any further, we recommend that you consult your car owner’s manual for detailed instructions on how to bleed your car’s brake fluid. The manufacturer’s suggestions may differ from the instructions below.
Choosing brake fluid for your car
Aaron Brown
Before you actually start flushing your brakes, the first thing you need to do is confirm that you have the right product for your car. “Make sure you are using the correct brake fluid,” says Hines. There are many different types of brake fluid, and your car’s braking system is designed for a specific type. “Get what applies to your car or what is already in the system,” he says.
Refer to the instruction manual for information about what type of liquid to buy. In some cases this information can be found on the filler cap of your brake fluid reservoir in the engine compartment.
Have the right tools for the job
At the very least, you’ll need a few basic tools to swap out your fluid. If you don’t – and probably don’t – have a car lift, you’ll need a couple of jacks to get the car up in the air so you can take the wheels off to get access to the vent screws. Not cheap on the jackstands!
Universal one-person brake bleeding bottle for one person
$ 14.99
Make sure you have a wrench to open and close the bleed screw on your calipers. Note that the size of the screws on the front and rear brake calipers can be different. You should also have a clear tube that attaches to the vent screw and leads to a clear container to catch the old liquid. If you are on a budget, you can use an old water bottle. Alternatively, you can buy something that was made for the job:
“I like [the container] to be clear so I can see the color of the brake fluid, ”says Hines. “That’ll tell you when you got all that old stuff out. Usually, the brake fluid darkens with age. “
How to bleed your brakes
Before you begin, Hines suggests taking a few seconds to feel your brakes. “I would really recommend getting a feel for the brake pedal before you start,” he tells us. This is a great way to verify that when you are done you have actually improved the feel of your brakes.
After you’ve thrown the car in the air and removed the wheels, it’s time to bleed your brakes. “Most of the time when I bleed brakes, I use a pressure bleeder,” says Hines. “They’re pretty cheap. For F1s I use the Motive Products pressure vent. It’s a handheld [unit] you can blow up. ”
Bleeding kit for brake booster
$ 54.95
A pressure vent means you don’t need someone in the driver’s seat to manually operate the pedal to create enough pressure to force the old fluid out. All you have to do is fill it with new fluid, connect it to your master cylinder and inflate it with either a hand lever or, if your ventilator has it, a compressed air connection.
If you’d rather not spend the money on a pressure bleeder for a simple brake fluid job, we understand. In this case, however, you will need someone else to help as the steps are a little different.
If you’re not using a bleeder, be sure to keep an eye on the fluid level in your master cylinder. When you bleed the brakes, fluid will leak out and you will need to top up them regularly. If you forget to do this, air can enter the system. And that’s bad.
Now you can finally start the bleeding process. “Always start on the caliper farthest from the master cylinder,” says Hines. Going to the rear of the vehicle first will ensure that the system is completely flushed and that there is no risk of old fluid building up in the system. Plug in the tool that you use to catch the fluid on the bleed screw, then make sure there is enough pressure on the brakes (either with pre-filled pressure bleed or with your buddy holding the brake pedal down). Then crack the vent screw. Liquid should come out immediately.
The vent screw is usually covered by a rubber grommet. Remove it before doing anything else.
Aaron Brown
Try to be careful when loosening the vent screw. You don’t want to break it off in the caliper.
Aaron Brown
When the fluid stops flowing, close the bleed screw and either inflate the pressure bleed or instruct your assistant to inflate the brake pedal. Open the screw again and more fluid should come out. Repeat these steps until the liquid comes out clean. Once that is the case, you can move on to the next caliper. We recommend driving at the rear on the passenger side ⇒ rear on the driver side ⇒ front passenger side ⇒ front on the driver side. Once the fluid is clear on all four corners, you have bled your brakes.
Some cars have calipers with more than one bleed screw, one inside and one outside. “When you do a really thorough job, and especially when you get your car on the track, you should be working inside and out,” says Hines. This will ensure that all of the air and debris trapped in the system is properly removed.
Other tips
“Never hit the brake pedal if you haven’t installed the brake pads and mounted them on the rotor because you will make the pistons pop out,” says Hines.
This may seem obvious to some, but it’s still something to keep in mind while switching pads. Pushing a brake piston all the way out of the housing creates a mess and is not exactly easy to insert.
“I saw a white paste form in the system on cars that had been sitting for a long time,” adds Hines. “It can be a bear getting out of there because it gets into the ABS block.”
Often times, according to Hines, this paste cannot be removed by standard bleeding procedures alone, even if you use a pressure vent. If you come across it, he recommends some kind of “Italian tuning” approach.
“What I did is do a brake flush, go into a parking lot and activate the ABS a few times, pushing everything loose,” says Hines. “Then I come back, do another brake flush, and then do that for a whole day [repeatedly] and it cleans everything up. “
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