Want to learn how to bleed brakes? Following a few simple steps you can bleed the brakes on your car or truck and be back on the road in no time.
If you've never bled the brakes on your own vehicle, you may want to watch someone who has done it before so you can learn how to bleed brakes correctly.
First, you need to always keep safety in mind when working in, on or around vehicles. OK. Open the hood and pop the cap on the brake reservoir.
You can save some time by removing the brake fluid from the reservoir and refilling with new brake fluid. It's important to remember to keep new
brake fluid in the reservoir at all times while you're bleeding the brakes. If not, you'll be introducing air into the brake lines, which is always
a bad thing. To properly bleed your brakes, you'll need a minimum of two people. One will be behind the wheel, no keys in the ignition, pumping the
brakes. The other will be underneath the vehicle, opening and closing the bleeder valves. The old school way to bleed brakes is to start at the bleed
valve on the rear passenger side. This is the farthest valve from the brake fluid reservoir. You'll then go to the driver side rear. Then on to the
passenger side front and finally the driver side front.
Now that we're set, let's get to actually bleeding the brakes. The person behind the wheel needs to pump up the brakes. This entails pumping the
brakes about 5 times and then holding their foot down on the pedal. When the brakes are pumped up, the person opening and closing the bleeder valves should
be prepared to open the bleeder valve. When they open the brake bleeder valve, fluid will shoot out the valve and the person inside the vehicle will feel
the pedal go to the floor. It's vital that the person with their foot on the brake pedal doesn't take their foot off the brake pedal. Once the pedal is
on the floor they need to signal that the pedal is down on the floor and then the bleeder valve is closed. This is repeated over and over until clear brake
fluid flows out of the bleeder valve:
Pump the brakes - Hold - Signal that brakes are pumped - Open valve - Pedal falls to floor - Hold pedal - Close bleeder valve - Check fluid in reservoir.
Once you're done with bleeding the brakes, make sure that the brake fluid reservoir is filled to the correct level. It's really more simple than it sounds
and once you've bled the brakes on your own vehicle you'll want to help others learn how to bleed their brakes!
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