THANK YOU!!! You solved my bleeding problem - I could not get much more than a dribble of fluid out of the the rear brakes and I was already starting to panic that I had a clogged braking system. After watching your video, I grabbed an M8-1.25 bolt and removed the bleed nipples. They were not badly corroded, but they were clogged! I cleaned them up on my bench grinder's wire wheel and used WD-40 and a thin sharp poker to clean the crud out of the tiny hole. Result! I got perfect fluid flow using 25 psi in my Motive Pressure Bleeder. The fronts did not need cleaning, nor did the clutch. BTW, I had no spongy pedal or air in the system. I did this bleed to change the fluid and remove the dreaded clutch delay valve. Total driving pleasure difference for my 6-speed 2007 E83 X3 3.0si! It's like I'm in control of the clutch now - it does what I want it to do. My clutch "feel" target is my 1983 BMW 633CSi. The clutch, and every other part of this car is connected directly to my nervous system. It does exactly what I want it to do without having to think about it. After 50 years driving manual transmissions cars, the X3 was infuriating. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get a smooth startup from a stop, and 1st to 2nd shifts were head bobblers. Not anymore! I would like to offer a couple of things that I hope you will find helpful. First, there is no need to put a can or two of brake fluid in the pressure tank. Just air pressure. You watch the level in the reservoir and refill it. I sucked most of the old fluid out with a plastic syringe, being careful not to remove it all and introduce air. I then filled the reservoir, and needed to refill it after the rear brakes, after the front brakes, and then top it up after the clutch. This is not my idea. I found it in a RU-vid video and wanted to smack myself in the head for not figuring it out. After a hose broke and sprayed brake fluid everywhere in a friends car, I have had brakebleedophobia for years and procrastinated doing the X3. I put up with the clutch delay valve for about 4 years! If a hose or fitting gives way, nothing but air will be emitted. Also, this approach used a little less than one liter of new brake fluid, whereas as previously I was using two to be sure I had enough in the pressure tank. Maybe the best feature of this - the pressure tank and hose does not need to be cleaned! It's dry! Just put it away for the next time. The bleed nipples are compression fittings and seal by the pressure of the "male" cone shaped end, which fits into a "female" cone inside the caliper. The female cone has a hole in the center that is plugged when the nipple is tightened. fluid flows out of the nipple from the small hole in the side, above the male cone, and out the center. No Teflon thread compound is needed, and a little wiggle when the fitting is loose is no problem. The Teflon might help keep the fitting from rusting in the threads. Personally, I wash the under carriage when ever I drive in the Winter. I live in Rochester, NY and we salt the roads like bad French Fries. I think my clogged nipples were due to some corrosion in the brake system that migrated to the nipples. This is likely due to me NOT changing the brake fluid sooner. Last, regarding air in the master cylinder. This is not a problem, unless the air is pushed into the lines by pressing the pedal with an empty reservoir. All brake fluid sits in front of the piston (unless the piston seal is leaking, in which case you need a new mater cylinder.) This area in front of the piston is open to the reservoir when then pedal is fully up, so that fluid can flow down into the master to keep it full as the brake pads wear down. any air bubbles in there will rise into the reservoir and join the air at the top. As you depress the pedal, the piston closes the connection to the reservoir so that all pressure will be directed down the brake lines. I think that for some reason, perhaps the clogged nipples, you were not able to get the air out of the rear brakes the first time you bleed them. You are 100% right about the feel of the pedal. You know it's right when you have braking as soon as your foot touches the pedal. Sorry for ranting on and on. Again, thanks for posting this video. You helped improve my life and you should feel very proud. Regards, Ira Fairport, NY
I love you man , you're for real my BMW role model brother !!!!!! Whenever I have a problem with my 323ci I come to your videos .. good bless you and keep the good work up !!
to solve the problem of not having a bleed valve on your pressure bleeder, you can drill a hole in the canister large enough for a schrader air valve for a tire. Install it from the inside and pull it through the hole. Then just press the pin to bleed the pressure from the canister.
your taking in air arount the bleed srcew because you have the draintube completely submerged in fluid at bottom.the siphone vacuum is pulling in air from around the bleedscrew which is not sealed around the threads.just raise the tube above level of fluid and it will stop bubling(back in around bleedscrew threads.)
Thank you! This was an incredibly helpful video. I ran into exactly the same problem with air leaking around the bleed screw and introducing air into the system. Teflon tape solved the issue.
You are the man!!! I love all your videos and this video especially because I've been going crazy with this problem on not only my e46, but also my previous vehicles. Your videos are making me enjoy working on my car again, so thanks for sharing and posting your knowledge. Keep up the great work!
Air is getting in from your bleeder valve and consequently coming out and you see it flowing through the plastic tubing. To eliminate that problem, I use some silicone grease applying it between the caliper body and the bleeder valve.
My dude! This happened to me also. The bleeder screw was so corroded and would let air even after I cleaned it. Went to O'Reilly auto and they had the bleeder screws in stock. Once I replaced them, Bam! there was no more leaks. Thanks for the awesome video!
In England we have easy bleed it has multiple caps for reservoir & you have attachments to connect to tyre valve you adjust tyre pressure to required pressure for using easy bleed contact to tyre valve go to each bleed nipple on car & open bleed nipples excellent one man bleeding system. Never had any trouble with air bubbles
I noticed the same annoying air bleeding around the bleed nipple threads with my BMW motorcycle. The R1150RT has 9 bleed nipples: 6 on the ABS modulator and 3 on the calipers. Swapping all the nipples out with speed bleeders ended up saving me a lot of time bleeding all 4 circuits as a "one man job", plus, the bleeders came with (what looks like) blue Loc-tite on the threads (versus teflon tape). It took me a few bleeds (and about 2 liters of fluid) to realize the air was leaking around some of the nipples. I'm about to change the fluid out on my E46 and am planning to exchange the stock bleed nipples on that with stainless steel speed bleeders as well. Nice video. Thanks!
Hey 50 good tip about the bleeder screw. Definitely helpful if you are bleeding the brakes by yourself. With two people you can over come that by closing the screw while second person is depressing the pedal, closing mid stroke. Another tip your bottle, install a tire valve stem. That way you can add air pressure and relieve through a shrader valve.
Worked for me I had endless bubbles also all screws were corroded, replaced with all new bleeder screws re-bleed with Schwaben European Pressure Brake Bleeder same good results brakes are good now.
The QD's on you pressure line from pump is good idea but you've got them backwards. If you put the male nipple on the cap and QD coupler on the hose, this will stop most of the mess dripping all over when you disconnect. You should still loosen the pump assy to bleed air of course. Also, you can get a car tire valve to relieve pressure. Installing it will be a bit of circus act but sure you can do it with some thought and tenacity. I made a pressure bleeder and had difficulty sealing cap also. I used 2 different types of silicone RTV and both would dissolve and/or dis-bond so it wouldn't seal. (what a friggn' mess). I am using JB weld now with original rubber seal. 10 psi max. Those are small and long lines we are pushing fluid through. Good luck man, you'll get it.
The air bubbles is air leaking in past the threads of the bleeder screws 50's kid. Few people realize this. Apply permatex 2 to the threads of the bleeder screws. Purple adjustable locktite or teflon tape on the threads might work too. Best to use a one way check valve with clear tubing attached to bleeder. Lightly crack bleeder... Pump the brake pedal while activating DSC and ABS thru DIS,, refill master cylinder..repeat. Much cleaner and less mess.
I appreciate your video because I had the same experience with the excessive pedal travel after new bench bled master cylinder, all brake hoses, all caliper seals and all new pads. After vacuum bleeding each wheel, I realized that I had not depressurized the ABS (for my vehicle, pump pedal 25 times with engine off). Having done so I solo bled each wheel with the hose in bottle and gained 90% pedal back. I'm now going to pressure bleed from the master cylinder to get that 100% pedal. Thanks
if you have an abs, you need to activate the pump to get all the air out of it. usually only the dealer can do it. if you have an e46, I have a video about using inpa software to activate the bleed routine on the pump. sometimes if you go driving in a safe area and slam on the brakes real hard to activate your abs, that can shake the bubbles loose enough to get them out with another bleed.
E39 M5 Tried bleeding with INPA and pressure bleeder at 20psi, but rear calipers seem to chuck out lots of air, also noticed fluid moving and minute bubbles when bleed nipples closed. Going to get new nipples tomorrow and wrap teflon tape, (we call it plumbers PTFE here in the UK). Good vid.
sham star Sounds like you're having the exact same problem I did. One other tip I've picked up since I made this video is to clean the rust off your old bleed screws with a wire wheel on a bench grinder or a smaller wire brush attachment for your hand drill. That combined with the teflon tape is the way to solve the problem for good!
50sKid update, removed rear nipples off the oem calipers. Plugged the hole in the caliper with a suitable bolt m8 x 125 as you kindly pointed out in your vid. Cleaned the nipples up, no rust so wrapped lots of ptfe tape around them. Bled and noticed one could do with a little more tape as a tiny bubble would travel in the opposite direction with nipple closed. The fronts are ap calipers and the nipples are larger, requiring 11mm spanner (wrench) to undo. I didn't wrap the fronts, but I think I may need to. After pressurising the system to 20psi and running inpa, activated brake bleed with one nipple on rear furthest from cylinder open. Pumped pedal 5 times and closed nipple on down stroke. Did the other rear then fronts. I did this 4/5 times on each corner. Result was pedal rock hard with ignition off and on, but soft and spongy as before with engine running. I will try again tomorrow, weather permitting and wrap all of the nipples with ptfe. Damn air, who would have thought it prove to be such a headache!
Are you sure you have the correct pads in there? That turned out to be my final problem, as I detailed in another video. Had the pads for a 325i when they should have been the larger ones for a 330i. Double check the basics.
50sKid update. Errm I could come back and say all is good after I wrapped more ptfe tape and re-bled the system, but I should be honest and say I overlooked the fact AP Calipers have *2* bleed nipples each and I only saw and bled the outside ones. *Blush* but yes all is good now! Many thanks for your tips. The worst thing is I have yet to replace the manifold headers, cats, x-pipe and back boxes all on my driveway. That should be fun :/
sham star Happens to the best of us! I was extremely embarrassed when I finally realized I had put the wrong pads on, lol. We all need those moments where we smack ourselves on the head because we'll never, ever make those mistakes again! Good luck with the exhaust work--I hope you have an air impact wrench and live in a rust free area!
From my research, I am left with the impression that putting Teflon tape on the bleeder screw threads is a great idea in terms of its ability to seal out the air that was leaking INTO the calipers via the threads. HOWEVER, it is essential to consider the possibility that the Teflon might degrade into small particles that could end up contaminating the brake system [not good]. For this reason, although I genuinely 'love' the idea of using the tape, I have decided never to do so. From other YT videos I have heard that some mechanics put grease around the threads to prevent bleeder screw air leaks. Again, from my research, I have found that petroleum products are incompatible with the brake fluid system. I'm guessing that regular petroleum-based grease negatively interacts with the beneficial chemistry of brake fluid, contaminating and potentially compromising the brake fluid in the system. When I rebuilt my calipers, I found and used a vegetation-based product called 'Red Rubber Grease' that IS compatible with brake systems. I have chosen to use this product [as a 'safe' alternative] to seal the bleeder screw threads for bleeding purposes. Those little air bubbles are beyond troublesome! Excellent video by the way. Thanks for sharing your experience. You're an asset to the community.
Thanks for that. I believe in a later video I figured out that the tips of my bleeder screws had corrosion on them so I cleaned them on a wire wheel and that allowed them to actually seat properly and not allow air to leak back in. I didn't need the teflon tape at that point. So now I always recommend removing the bleeders completely and cleaning if necessary when doing a brake fluid change. I think I'll make a new version of this video on my E90.
18m10s, also 21m14s - brake fluid backing up to the bleeders can be seen, very slowly, but if you take a closer look at the video it can be seen. Looking like both sides still have some leak at this stage, that's MAYBE due to they are not finally tightened. I don't know. But it seems like you have finished tightening, "and we are good". I understand the general idea of this video and I agree that whichever way to reach the goal is acceptable. If that works for you then you're fine :)
Excellent analysis. I had the same soft paddle issue after new rotors, pads, and fresh fluid. I was to the point of changing the master cylinder which was perfectly fine. I will redo the bleeding tomorrow paying more attention to the bleeders and pumping the brake slowly a few times while using my pressure bleeding. Hope it will work. Thanks for your videos. Keep it up.
i have this issue on my e36, im going to do what you have done asap. seems the exact same bubbles coming from the system non stop. cheers for all your videos btw. im going to attempt the ccv replacement on my e46 once my e36 is together again.
You should also check these out; speed bleeder screws from Speedbleeder.com. BMW e46 size is M8x1.25 32.5mm (SB8125L). I had this type on my motorcycles and they let you skip pressure bleeding and you can just use the pedal by yourself and in 3-5 pumps your pedal will be nice and hard. Thanks again!
The reason why you may have been getting so many air bubbles is because the connection between the hose and the bleeder screw was compromised. Thus introducing sit into the hose because of a poor seal. This happened to me. I hope this helps some people.
Thank you for this video. I had some trouble with some cars where it would bubble still and it would have me wonder what was going on. Im going to do this to some cars I work on now.
2 года назад
Where did you get your .5 gal sprayer from with that style of pump? The ones Amazon are showing me only have the hand operated pump/sprayer combos :( Also, it's safe to pump the brakes with positive pressure on the MC like that? No risk of blowing out the seals or is that specific to each car/manufacturer?
Great info thanks. Need to change front left caliper on a e53 X5 (same generation as e46) so as long as I don’t let brake reservoir run dry it should be fine bleeding the brakes the normal way? Ie not needing the BMW DIS/INPA software? Good videos again, subscribed!
Did you open the bleed nipple as if you are bleeding the brakes when pushing back the pads? It lets the excess fluid out rather than pushing it back into the system.
I didn't, but I think that's a good thing to do. Prevents the reservoir from overflowing. Makes it so you don't have to suck fluid out with a turkey baster before hand.
I'm at 11:00 in the video, and it looks like its pulling air through the threads, and your bleeder nipple is gummed up. Had to replace a decent amount of them myself(;!
@50sKid Is there a link for a definitive method for bleeding the brakes, assuming air is in the master (if your replacing it, or you let the reservoir empty). I read that I need DIS or INPA to bleed using the DSC, a how to on this would be great. Also, I'll probably use speed bleeders (check valve in the bleeder screw) instead of pressure bleeding, but I don't know if that will work with the DSC bleeding procedure, can you shed some light on this?
You mentioned you replaced your master cylinder. Did you bench bleed the MC before installing it on booster? That could be your air source. Just a thought. You also can get air sucking around your bleeder valves on caliper.
Hi 50s Kid I am new to this world, do you have a video on vacuum line for the e46 325i on were they go point to point , and were do we get the line and sizes as i also have a vacuum leak
Dose the e39 M54 have a proportioning valve I been looking on line and can't find anything my rear break lines bust a major leak and I replace both rear lines and caps but now I can't get any fluid to the rear. And also my master cylinder was really low
Hi, there is a small vacuum line just after the MAF which leads down toward the back of the engine (M54). It came off from the other end and I cant find where to plug it. The one you had referred to when you were talking about M54 oil consumption. It was one of the options you gave where a T-connection is used from the same port to take it down to the engine for purposes of increasing vacuum pressure to reduce oil consumption. Now where does that line lead to so I can re-connect it. Thanks
We have a 01 330ci, and we replaced the two front calipers and upgraded to SS breaded lines on all four corners. Removing the rear calipers to paint them. Now I can not get the bubbles out. we can pour brake fluid into the resivour and it would go down , but didn't see anywhere where it might leak. Maybe going into the booster? I"m at a loss. This is the first BMW I have ever worked on. I used to US cars. Any ideas?
+James Lang A car's a car. But a car with an ABS system is a car that needs to never be bled dry of its brake fluid. Did that happen? Did it all leak out of the reservoir when you were changing the calipers? If so, you have air bubbles trapped in the abs pump (called a DSC pump on these cars). I have a video about using INPA software and cable to activate the pump and get the air bubbles out.
I looked at the resivior and it was dry only for a second. I did buy a power bleeder and used it, and it seemed to work. The car is driveable, but concerned that all the air is not out.
Hey I just got a bmw e46 325i 2005 it feels good but it's 11yrs old what should I change first or what should I do ???so it could stay in it good conditions
If you have a positive pressure going out through the bleeder nipple, that pressure should not allow any air to seep in through the threads of the bleeder nipple. The reason is that the system is under positive pressure and that pressure wants to go out through the threads from within the caliper. External air would have to overcome the pressure bleeder psi in order to go through the threads and into the caliper. The bubbles you saw was air in your system and why your brakes were spongy. Also, concerning your new pressure bleeder, make sure the pump does not extend all the way to the bottom of the container....Aerated brake fluid is the last thing you want going into your system.
+MrDLRu Actually there weren't bubbles in the system any longer. The bleed nipples weren't seating down properly because of the gunk that was on them, so when I tightened them down, there was still a small path for a tiny amount of air to get in after I released the pressure inside the bleeder. I literally ran 3 liters of fluid through the system until I figured that out. Anyway, that's why I ended up using teflon tape--just adding an additional layer to make sure that didn't happen. Good tip on the pump--they usually do not extend to the bottom for that very reason.
Your bleeding this all wrong, You need DIS to bleed the system that`s why you keep getting air in the system also 2 bar? that`s far too much pressure 12 psi is ample
If bleeding the front after opening the nipple(s) you should activate the DSC pump then proceed to bleeding otherwise you will never get all the air out but "pump activation is not needed on the rear brakes only". Personally I never liked inpa, DIS is the system BMW use themselves but you could brick your car if you dont know what your doing.
I know about activating the DSC to bleed the brakes. Like I said, I made a video on it. I have DiS but I don't like it because it's slow. INPA is quicker to get into and use, takes 5 seconds to get to the screen you need. Where did you hear that you don't need to activate the pump for the rear brakes? In INPA it has two activation options, one for FL/RL and one for FR/RR. So a right and a left option, basically. Why would it say RL "rear left" and RR "rear right" if you didn't need to activate it for the rear?
Can someone tell me if an ABS pump is replaced (E90) can I do a brake flush and bleed with a bleeder manually, after ABS replacement or do I have to do the computerized method with INPA or equivalent?
