car been sitting for awhile and brakes are now spongy/soft. anyhow i wanted to know if i can gravity bleed the system?
What do you mean by gravity bleed? Normally you bleed the brakes by using the master cylinder to push the fluid through and that should work fine if the car has been sitting and if it has ABS.
I’m think he’s talking about gravity bled as in opening the bleeder valves and letting the fluid bleed out on its own (not using master cylinder or bleeder gun to force/suck fluid)
I don’t know much about bleeding abs, however the bleeder guns that suck the fluid from the bleeder valves are very handy. I’ve always been told the master cylinder wasn’t made to be pushed to the floor… especially if its an old master cylinder and the piston/gasket has never been pushed that far.
In that case, no. You’re never going to do an effective job of bleeding air from the system if you just loosen the bleed valves and let fluid leak out.
[QUOTE=Boostpyro90;2328086]
I don’t know much about bleeding abs, however the bleeder guns that suck the fluid from the bleeder valves are very handy. I’ve always been told the master cylinder wasn’t made to be pushed to the floor… especially if its an old master cylinder and the piston/gasket has never been pushed that far.[/QUOTE]
I’ve never had luck with those things, tried twice and they broke each time. And yes, supposedly you’re not supposed to take the pedal to the floor, but I’ve always done it with no problems. I’ve also seen people put a block of wood under the pedal so that you’re not taking it to the floor.
^Thats a good idea. Personally the gun I bought a couple years ago works well enough. I think I got it from autozone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVq7sAFJTpI
im talking about this. but cant seem to find if this will work for abs
nevermind ill use the bottle method which is faster
Did some googling and it appears some people do actually use this gravity bleed technique. So it can’t be complete crap. But there’s no way I’d trust that method for my track car. And it seems gravity bleeding does not work in all situations, such as when you’re replacing a master cylinder.
I forgot to mention earlier but that video reminded me… speed bleeders. These things are awesome, definitely worth the investment. I wish I would have gotten them a long, long time ago.
Yes it can also be done with abs. I did it with my car, just make sure to use a transparent hole to see that there is no bubble before closing the nipple.