bleeding brakes after replacing caliper

haste4daylight · Post by **haste4daylight** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:44 pm

i have to replace a caliper on the driver side... my question is do i have to bleed the brakes on all 4 wheels or do i only have to bleed the line to the caliper I replaced? According to my repair manual "If a brake line was disconnected only at a wheel, then only that caliper or wheel cylinder must be bled." i just wanna verify if this is true or not?

esteinmaier · Post by **esteinmaier** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:46 pm

As long as the reservoir never went dry, that's true. Although I'm a little OCD and I would just do all 4. That also keeps them from seizing up from rust, which happens often.

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:47 am

All lines.

These are your brakes and not something that one should cut corners on. Not to mention that there is a particular pattern in which the brakes are meant to be bled. I can't remember off hand what that pattern is.

thttxboy · Post by **thttxboy** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:12 am

Thats true but, If only one line is pulled then that one has to be bled. Its not like air got sucked through the whole system, when you pull a brake line fluid comes out and stops at the hard line but it doesnt suck in air. The only place air is at is in the caliper and the brake line going to the hard line but unless u did something dumb like press the brakes while the line was off and then it sucked in air its not necessary to bleed all the brakes unless u want to or the master cylinder went empty for some reason. Also if you have never done a brake fluid change then now would be a good time to do it since you have to use new fluid to bleed anyways.

darthroush · Post by **darthroush** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:38 pm

hansken_yo wrote:All lines.

These are your brakes and not something that one should cut corners on. Not to mention that there is a particular pattern in which the brakes are meant to be bled. I can't remember off hand what that pattern is.

Farthest from the MC first. So, is the MC is on the driver side of the engine bay, you'd go: RR, LR, RF, LF. If you have to bleed the MC, that comes before all calipers for an obvious reason.