I took my car into an indie shop yesterday for a brake job, they completely f-cked up the brake bleed part. Now my brake pedal goes all the way to the floor, and I have virtually no braking power. I told them there is air trapped in the system, they are still trying to figure out how to get it right. Is there anything special about this car I need to know about? I'm using normal off-the-shelf DOT4 brake fluid. The one odd thing I noticed is they've only used 3/4 of a quart, which is too little I think?

 

take it back
bleed the brakes starting furthest from MBC

 

^^ ..... no ...

Bleed starts from Master Brake Cylinder, some later model does not have a bleed screw there, if that's the case, ignore the MBC part and start bleedin it in the following order

Front Left, Clutch, Front Right, Rear Left, Rear Right.

Repeat one more time.

no offense but I think you should take your car somewhere else, what kind of ******* SHOP is that cant even do bleeding right, sheesh.

 

Hey, isn't it the furthest distance From the MBC?..

So for LH Drive cars..

Rear Right, Rear Left, Front Right, Front Left??

But Yeah , a **** POOR Shop if they can't Bleed Brakes properly!!

Did you say they are a "Specialist" ???

 

nycgps...you are saying start from the closest point from the MBC???..

Gee... I always thought It was the other way around?

 

always start @ closest part of the MBC, then repeat one more time. air free

 

I've been going to this guy for 15 years, he has always done good work. So yes, I was pretty surprised when the brake pedal went to the floor. The clutch engagement is perfect though, so somehow the clutch side of the circuit has been spared thus far.

I have a 2004 model year. Just for sh-ts and giggles I'm going to try bleeding the master cylinder and see if it makes a difference. Will give the guy one more chance to make this right. Otherwise I might just bite the bullet and learn to do it myself.

 

First you said it once and I thought it was miss-typed, but now you said it again.
You always start with the MC (if applicable) and then go from the furthest wheel to the closest as ASH8 AND Jedi54 pointed out above.


Damn noobs

 

^^^ hey!
that's what I said.

 

Your Jedi powers made me fix my previous post

 

Never could figure out that either..I always bleed the ones with the most air first

 

Air at the master is easy when the "idiot" behind the fluid can can't keep up with the bleeding....and lets the master suck in air....

Then you get to start all over again with another quart of fluid

 

Hmm ...

I swear I saw it somewhere that u bleed closer to the MBC first ...

Been doing that way no issues so ~~~~

Damn Im a n00b

 

Hmm ...

I swear I saw it somewhere that u bleed closer to the MBC first ...

Been doing that way no issues so ~~~~

Damn Im a n00b

 

I did not think I had been doing it wrong......BUT...

Really, I can not honestly see what difference it makes, really, as long as you are getting all the air and Old fluid out...does it really matter..??

 

12.5k posts and bleeds bass ackwards! Noob!!!!

Furthest first!!!!

Getting air out is obviously the most important, so probably doesn't really matter as long as that is accomplished.

 

so instead of being a complete n00b,

Im a "semi" n00b now ?

...

*sigh* ...

AS LONG AS THE JOB IS DONE ALRIGHT !!!!!! THANK YOU !


THAT GUY HAS BEEN WORKING IN THE FIELD 20+ YEARS STILL COULDN'T GET THE JOB DONE ! MUHAHAHAHAHA !

 

really? and how is that?
care to expand on this?

 

Cuz you failed :P

no seriously, you failed

lol

Hmm, because I said do it backwards? but hey it still works (for me)

 

Does the 8 have an ABS controller that needs to be bled?

If the fluid level got too low and air was sucked into the master cylinder, does it need to be bench bled?

Ken

 

dunno about Rx-8, but other people said they turn their car on to bleed ABS.

 

The 2004-2005 models have a bleeder screw on the master cylinder, so you can bleed it without taking it out. I don't know why Mazda took this out, this is a freaking useful feature and shows that whoever spec'ed the original part cared.

Since I'm the OP of this thread, let me give an update on what happened. After I got the car home with no brakes, I bled enough air out of the master cylinder to fill both of Beth Chapmans *****. I took the car back and told them to bleed the four corners again, then I bled the MC again. The brake pedal is pretty solid now. I will bleed the MC a couple more times and see if I can get any more air out of the system.

No clue how much air is trapped in the ABS... I guess those will eventually find their way into the brake lines.

 

Inconceivable that a shop would send you home with malfunctioning brakes; that's just deadly and I'd probably be making a few calls. Even if they screwed up the bleeding, just driving it across the lot should have revealed the problem. On their way to the freakin' test drive!

 

I always learned from the farthest away from the MC up to the MC unless otherwise stated....I know some cars need to have a scantool to operate the ABS system to bleed the brakes but not the 8(i'm pretty sure...I never bled the brakes on my 8)....If my AllData would work I would look it up but as usualy it's being a POS