How to bleed your brakes: Step-by-Step Instructions

I've been meaning to do this for a long time, since it's something I often have to explain to people. Here's my write-up on bleeding brakes. I intend to improve it over time, probably adding photos and more detail as I get feedback from people using them.

How to Bleed Brakes

I sincerely appreciate your great writeups and advice on tech topics.

I guess I'm not the only one that had a negative experience with 1-way valve bleeders.

Originally Posted by Lscman

I sincerely appreciate your great writeups and advice on tech topics.

I guess I'm not the only one that had a negative experience with 1-way valve bleeders.

Please tell me more! I'm assuming you mean the SpeedBleeders or some similar product? What sort of problem did you have? I often wonder if I've simply had incredibly bad luck with these or if they really do only work 1/3 of the time. Even if they worked 100 percent of the time, they still aren't very good at getting stubborn air bubbles out.

I have had "some" luck pushing a pint or so of fluid thru with 1 way bleeders, that is, purging moisture or cloudy brown fluid from a wet system.

It doesn't seem to get that last bit of air out, like you can when a person is standing at the wheel cranking the bleeder each pedal stroke & watching for an end to streams of bubbles coming out.