Any bleeding experts ?

[s2avant]

As to 4 clicks on the handbrake - oh well should I be punished for it not working on 1 or 2 clicks?

Jees guys I was lying under the car on wet tarmac with one axle stand holding it up and I just backed off the adjuster nut on the hbrake cable to give me enough slack to fit cable onto caliper.... Please excuse me if I can wait until the brakes are bedded in properly and then I can revisit the hbrake adjuster for operation on fewer clicks (if I can be arsed) but its hardly relevant.

[philosophical]

Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops. Thomas J. Watson

Sums it up I think.

Paul whenever we try something that's never been done before there are bound to be teething issues. It's part of the learning process. It's falls on those of us who decide to be different to smooth the path for others to follow. It is a thankless and often frustrating task but ultimately it benefits the everyone.

I remember years ago when Lee was around he was asked why he kept moving the goalposts with his brake and wheel/tyre experiements. His answer was that people needed to realise there are no goalposts rock:

[/philosophical]

Keep at it and I'm sure you will get it sorted out in the end.

Ben

[mcandmar]

I can sense the frustration building

Like i said i had similar issues after fitting two new rear callipers, most puzzling was i got less pressure on the rear right calliper than the rear left, with the brake pedal pushed to the floor i could rotate the right rear doing up the wheels nuts.

I just left it and just drove the car for a few weeks before bleeding again and everything was fine then. It did take 3 full bleeds in total before i got it sorted.

Just drive it for a while and let the pads bed in and the handbrake mechanism adjust itself. (the screw thread shaft/piston bit in the calliper). I think there’s someway to force that, something like pull up the hand brake and pump the pedal, or the other way around. Just incase its something to do with that pulling the piston away from the pads.

When you were bleeding the calipers did you get less fluid per pedal stroke than you were expecting? Just curious as i did..

[iain1067]

My hands are testament to many bleeding sessions working on audi's over the years, the scars have healed anyway

[newsh]

Something I've occasionally had to do on the bike brakes, which are 4 pots too, is to bleed the line connection, you get someone to put pressure on the lever (or pedal in the case of a car..) and crack the line connection to the caliper, nip it back up before the lever reaches the end of its travel. They even make banjo bolts with bleed nipples in them for this purpose, well cool.

[S2central.net]

Well the problem is sorted - no more problems - the root cause was amazingly simple.

Anbody want to guess what I did wrong when bleeding ?

AFAIK it isn't documented anywhere - and frankly I'm surprised that nobody posted here about it yet... Its one of those dopey things you don't think about.

Boy am I happy and relieved

Paul

[CliveH]

Come on then Paul - share the secret with us...

Glad you got it sorted anyway

[S2central.net]

Gonna leave you hanging a while... Think.... Think ... Think

[Fat Audi 80]

Brake bias valve? (Not even sure if there is one fitted )

[LHD_Kid]

bleed with handbrake off?

[S2central.net]

You got it - wrong way round maybe but I have to spill the beans...

I inadvertantly bled the rears with the handbrake ON the first time. This only occured to me when bleeding them again tonight with a friend who was wondering why so little fluid was coming out. He asks did it matter if the handbrake was on - I released the handbrake and the rears bled much much better.

So it would seem this was the root of my problem in that whatever way the rear calipers work, there was air trapped in the rears as the handbrake was ON when I bled them. Dammit Beavis.

Massive bubbles came from both sides after the handrake was released... and boy what a difference !

I shall never forget this one - a total accident that I did it wrong the 1st time - had no idea that it mattered that much... But now we know.

By the way, I bled the fronts before this little discovery and it made no difference.


Paul

[CliveH]

Well done Paul

There are 10 kinds of binary people who understand bleeding brakes - those who do, and those who don't, and I fall into the 10nd category...

[S2central.net]

Touchez

[LHD_Kid]

You got it - wrong way round maybe
Paul

HEYYYYYY, I got it the right way round, bleed with handbrake off, not bled with handbrake off...!!
hehehe, this isnt't bad since you can write my mechanical knowledge on the rear of a very very small postage stamp...!

Anyway, glad you got it sorted and was something really easy (makes a change)



Chris