Far/deep and spongy brake pedal after brake line job and full bleed

[mz3bo]

Hi,

A few days ago while I was driving the car, the brake fluid warning came on and my reservoir was empty. I refilled the reservoir and realized that there was a leak on the line.

So this morning, I have redone all the brake brake line under the driver side as one of them was leaking. Once the job done, I proceed to bleeding the system with my Motive bleeder. Started with the pass/rear, drv/rear, pass/front and ended with driver/front. Made sure that the was no air bubble and closed everything (i let about 0.5L of fluid out to make sure that was no air or anything like that). During the process of bleeding each corner, I have the brake pedal fully depressed to the floor and a piece of wood was holding it in place. I never release the pedal until I was done closing the last nipple.

Now, here is the problem. When I hit the brake, the bite only happens at the end of the travel of the pedal. The first few inchs did nothing and you can barely feel any backpressure. I drove 20 miles and still the same thing.

No leak, nothing. I forget to mention that when I was beelding with the motive, the gauge was bad and only at the end, found out I used 25Psi pressure (don't know if that could have damaged anyhting).

Any help would be really appreciated.

2005 X5 4,8IS

Bo

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by mz3bo

Hi,

A few days ago while I was driving the car, the brake fluid warning came on and my reservoir was empty. I refilled the reservoir and realized that there was a leak on the line.

So this morning, I have redone all the brake brake line under the driver side as one of them was leaking. Once the job done, I proceed to bleeding the system with my Motive bleeder. Started with the pass/rear, drv/rear, pass/front and ended with driver/front. Made sure that the was no air bubble and closed everything (i let about 0.5L of fluid out to make sure that was no air or anything like that). During the process of bleeding each corner, I have the brake pedal fully depressed to the floor and a piece of wood was holding it in place. I never release the pedal until I was done closing the last nipple.

Now, here is the problem. When I hit the brake, the bite only happens at the end of the travel of the pedal. The first few inchs did nothing and you can barely feel any backpressure. I drove 20 miles and still the same thing.

No leak, nothing. I forget to mention that when I was beelding with the motive, the gauge was bad and only at the end, found out I used 25Psi pressure (don't know if that could have damaged anyhting).

Any help would be really appreciated.

2005 X5 4,8IS

Bo

Sounds like you still have air in the system. Use a bottle and hose on the bleeder fittings and continue bleeding. I always have an assistant as my pedal masher. There is a procedure for bleeding the ABS pump with INPA but you should be able to get a decent pedal by bleeding the system conventionally.

Just remember to keep the clear hose below the level of the fluid in the bottle so you don't suck air back into the system on the brake pedal return.

[mz3bo]

Thanks for the answer.

I am not using anyone to kick the pedal since the motive pressure bleeder is applying pressure by itself. However, when doing the procedure, I using a piece of wood to keep the pepdal to the floor...

Originally Posted by Overboost

Sounds like you still have air in the system. Use a bottle and hose on the bleeder fittings and continue bleeding. I always have an assistant as my pedal masher. There is a procedure for bleeding the ABS pump with INPA but you should be able to get a decent pedal by bleeding the system conventionally.

Just remember to keep the clear hose below the level of the fluid in the bottle so you don't suck air back into the system on the brake pedal return.

[Overboost]

You can still do this with single man operation. With the bottle and hose connected to the bleeder screw, just open the bleeder and go to the pedal and pump down, up, down, up, down slowly until no air bubbles come out and then close the bleeder and move to the next corner. I would leave the pressure bleeder off and just keep refilling the reservoir. Your method of longest brake line to shortest is correct, just keep bleeding.

[Crowz]

I am not using anyone to kick the pedal since the motive pressure bleeder is applying pressure by itself. However, when doing the procedure, I using a piece of wood to keep the pepdal to the floor...

The brake pedal floored is probably fighting you on the bleeding.



Brakes | Crowz Nest

If you notice on this diagram from my vette brake info when the pedal is to the floor the feed ports for the cylinder are not open to the reservoir.

[upallnight]

I would think that you need to bleed the ABS system. Good Luck with that. You need to operate the ABS pump to get a good bleed. Unless you have the equipment and the know how to bleed the ABS system I would just find a shop that can do it for you.