brake bleeding difficulty

[42000]

Hey guys,

So I have installed a bunch of new brake stuff and got rid of my abs and now I am bleeding the system. I should mention that I had the master completely off in order to change my steering knuckle bushing and swap my z3 rack... When i was putting the master back on the pushrod fell out of the booster...

I was trying to "gravity bleed" the system so I had all 4 bleeders open and started dumping brake fluid into the master. The fluid started to come out of the driver front so i shut that bleeder. then i continued to pour in brake fluid to the master. but then the brake fluid level stopped dropping and i couldnt add any more. (no fluid was coming out any of the other bleeders)

then i shut all the bleeders and tried having my friend pump the pedal and then hold it while i opened the bleeders... still no fluid coming out any of the other bleeders and the master cylinder level remaining the same...

Could it be that the pushrod came loose again? my friends dad said bad seals on the master... but then why would it hold fluid consistently?? Or could this just be clogs in the lines?? (the front drivers side is completely new lines so it makes sense that it would be clear, but all other calipers use original hard lines... possibly just clogged bleeders?

when i pump the brakes like 10-20 times real quick i can feel pressure but still nothing comes from the bleeders...


Summary: brake fluid only coming out of front drivers bleeder... nothing from any of other bleeders and master cylinder level not dropping.

[jlevie]

If you removed the ABS unit the first thing I'd suspect would be the changes in the brake system plumbing.

[42000]

what do you mean by that?

I simply removed the abs and then went from the master with a line to the rear and a line with a t fitting to the fronts...

[jlevie]

Well if brakes bled before, and all you did was to re-plumb to delete ABS, it would be logical to assume that is where the problem is.

In my opinion, deleting the ABS is a bad idea. In an event it can be the difference between driving the car home with little or no damage or watching the crumpled hulk being hauled off on a flat bed.

[42000]

I got the brakes bled. must have just been clogs in the lines...

I debated using the abs system.. but seeing that my system was already not functioning, I chose to get rid of it and see how I like it... I obviously saved my abs pump, so I can always put it back in...

I really don't think its a big deal not having abs as people were driving cars without it all the way up to the 80s...

[jlevie]

I really don't think its a big deal not having abs as people were driving cars without it all the way up to the 80s...

Right, and there were accidents that could have been avoided if they had had ABS.

In case you don't know, once a front wheel locks up that wheel can no longer steer the car. In a like manner locked up rear wheels will spin the car. And a locked wheel can reduce the braking effect once the rubber starts boiling off. ABS prevents the lock up condition allowing you to continue to steer the car and continue to brake and the maximum rate the conditions allow.

Until you reach the point of brake lockup, there is no difference between performance or feel with or without ABS.

The ABS system is really very simple on an E30 and not hard to fix when it in't working.