So it's a long story but here goes, I've got a 1989 325ix that surprise, the main rear brake line front to back rusted out and I need to replace it. I've done this before in my 1984 318i with little issues but that car didn't have ABS. I figured I'd tackle the job when I had some time and drove the car without rear brakes and used the e-brake to assist (big mistake as PO removed the left side since the backing plate stripped out the spring holders, yay) for a couple weeks while the parts came in.
After a while of running without fluid in the rear I noticed I was now having problems in the front and my fluid was almost gone in the reservoir so I deduced that running without fluid in the rears drained the reservoir out and blew out the seals between the front and back brake lines on the master cylinder and I was pushing the fluid to the rear and out the rusted hose. Sweet, I've got a spare master cylinder so I replaced that. I replaced all of the lines and hoses from the proportioning valve all the way back to the calipers including a brand new T in the back. The calipers were sticking and acting funny so I bought rebuilt ones from bav and stuck those on along with new rear rotors. Basically the entire system from the proportioning valve back is brand new.
I went to bleed the rear brakes and tried with a vacuum bleeder and with someone pumping the brakes up and every time I tried nothing came out of the calipers. The odd thing was is that after a bit of pumping from my brother I actually saw the right rear brake caliper squeeze up like it was getting fluid and being compressed but yet nothing came out. I've done this dozens of times before and never had a problem bleeding the brakes on ABS cars but I've also never fully ran out of fluid.
I figured the ABS might be the cause so I put the car back together and drove it around a bit. The car was now doing the self-test on the ABS pump and that appears to be working correctly. The funny part about that is that when I start the car and hit the brakes initially there's not a lot of pressure and the pedal goes almost to the floor. I put the car in drive, go forward and hit the brakes and the pedal is stiff like it's perfectly fine, the ABS unit initiates a self test and then the pedal immediately sinks back to the floor and is worse off then when I didn't have the rear brakes in place. After a couple times of driving like that I tried to bleed the car again, nothing came out. I figured maybe I needed to have the car running and pass the self test to open it up so I ran the car up the street, got the self test to go, backed up and with the car running tried to bleed the brakes again and nothing came out.
The REALLY interesting part is that when I look at the brand new coated Meyle rotors they are actually wearing in and getting used, WTF???
At this point I'm at a lost. I've got brand need lines bent with a manual tube bender with the right diameter, brand new UUC stainless hoses, the rear brakes are working somewhat, not very well obviously with not fluid but no matter what I do I simply can't get the fluid to go through the system. I'm thinking air in the ABS but I've never experienced that before so am not familiar with the symptoms.
Any ideas out there?
Is my ABS unit air locked? Bad MC? Bad proportioning valve? Am I just smoking too much crack on my weekends?
After a while of running without fluid in the rear I noticed I was now having problems in the front and my fluid was almost gone in the reservoir so I deduced that running without fluid in the rears drained the reservoir out and blew out the seals between the front and back brake lines on the master cylinder and I was pushing the fluid to the rear and out the rusted hose. Sweet, I've got a spare master cylinder so I replaced that. I replaced all of the lines and hoses from the proportioning valve all the way back to the calipers including a brand new T in the back. The calipers were sticking and acting funny so I bought rebuilt ones from bav and stuck those on along with new rear rotors. Basically the entire system from the proportioning valve back is brand new.
I went to bleed the rear brakes and tried with a vacuum bleeder and with someone pumping the brakes up and every time I tried nothing came out of the calipers. The odd thing was is that after a bit of pumping from my brother I actually saw the right rear brake caliper squeeze up like it was getting fluid and being compressed but yet nothing came out. I've done this dozens of times before and never had a problem bleeding the brakes on ABS cars but I've also never fully ran out of fluid.
I figured the ABS might be the cause so I put the car back together and drove it around a bit. The car was now doing the self-test on the ABS pump and that appears to be working correctly. The funny part about that is that when I start the car and hit the brakes initially there's not a lot of pressure and the pedal goes almost to the floor. I put the car in drive, go forward and hit the brakes and the pedal is stiff like it's perfectly fine, the ABS unit initiates a self test and then the pedal immediately sinks back to the floor and is worse off then when I didn't have the rear brakes in place. After a couple times of driving like that I tried to bleed the car again, nothing came out. I figured maybe I needed to have the car running and pass the self test to open it up so I ran the car up the street, got the self test to go, backed up and with the car running tried to bleed the brakes again and nothing came out.
The REALLY interesting part is that when I look at the brand new coated Meyle rotors they are actually wearing in and getting used, WTF???
At this point I'm at a lost. I've got brand need lines bent with a manual tube bender with the right diameter, brand new UUC stainless hoses, the rear brakes are working somewhat, not very well obviously with not fluid but no matter what I do I simply can't get the fluid to go through the system. I'm thinking air in the ABS but I've never experienced that before so am not familiar with the symptoms.
Any ideas out there?
Is my ABS unit air locked? Bad MC? Bad proportioning valve? Am I just smoking too much crack on my weekends?
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