Do I have to bleed all four wheels if I changed the front passenger brake line?

When I push the pedal it goes all the way to the floor. Also, the wheel is still really hard to turn, so do you think the caliper might be the culprit?

 

During my brake sagas the last couple of months, I finally got bleeders with check valves and a bleeder catch cup. My life has changed.

I also rebuilt the calipers on the Camaro for the first time last month (1st time I've ever rebuilt calipers, and I've had disk brake vehicles on which I've done brakes since 1979). That was eye-opening.

 

Cool, is there a spring in the caliper that pushes it back out when you're not pressing on them? I've always wondered that.

 

Nope. They'll rub slightly until the slight variation in the parallelism of the rotor surfaces push them back into the caliper bore. The factory also came up with a piston seal with a beveled edge that helped pull the piston back in slightly.

 

Hey five7kid,

Where did you buy the bleeders? What brand?

Thanks,
Harry

 

Amazing five7kid isnt it. Calipers sound so complicated but theyre so simple. 20 bucks seems too expensive all of a sudden doesnt it.

 

to the original question, how to bleed the brakes, you'll need a couple of things. You'll need to find the fitting on the back of the cailper (looks like a zirc fitting or a grease fitting) and see which wrench works. you'll need that size wrench for both front calipers. after you figure out what size wrench, you need a coiuple more things:

A friend

a pan (to catch the fluid)

patience

a master cylinder FULL of fluid

NO, you don't need to bleed all 4 corners, just the corners where you allowed air into the system. (the reason for the pedal hitting the floor). jack the front of the car up, and take off both front tires. have your buddy sit in the driver's set. tell him to pump the brake pedal repeatedly. now tell him to stop and hold it all the way down (even if it means hitting the floor). have your wrench on the fitting we found earlier, and loosen it... not a lot, but just enough so that air (and a little fluid) will come out. leave it open, like one or two seconds... just enough to push some air out. close it back off. now repeat. this time, there might be a little less air. keep repeating to make sure you have all of the air out of the line. you'll see a steady stream of fluid coming out when you've done it right. make sure the master cylinder is still full (it won't be, so fill it back up), and repeat for the other side. you should notice a difference in pedal immediately after finishing the first corner. after the second corner, it should be the same, or even bettter than it was when you started the brake hose fix.

 

Ummm... The rotor may have some effect, but the retraction of the piston(s) is handled by the master cylinder.

 

Pushing the piston out against the pads is a function of the master cylinder. When the master cylinder backs off (i.e., when you let off of the brake pedal), the pressure is released but that doesn't "pull" the piston off of the pad. In fact, there is a check valve on the master cylinder piston that allows fluid in from the reservoir rather than any kind of "vacuum" on the caliper piston.

Do you need to bleed all four brakes just because you replaced one hose? The answer is, "Probably not," but the best advice is to go ahead and do it. Can't hurt to insure you have no air in there, and getting fresh fluid throughout the system every once in awhile is a good idea, too.

I bought the bleeder check valves at Checker ("Help" card).