You should fill it and bleed all four corners of your brakes until any air is out of the system.

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You should fill it and bleed all four corners of your brakes until any air is out of the system.

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It's that easy? Why do they say you have to bench bleed a new master cylinder when you put it in?

 

I haven't got that far to ever replace the master cylinder on any car, nor Toyota or Lexus. I have to look up TIS to see if it's necessary. I work for Toyota by the way so I know plenty of info.

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Thanks Gerson. I'll try just bleeding the brakes the regular way, hopefully it'll work fine. If not, I'll bleed the master cylinder I guess.

fj62, that is correct. For a car with ABS, you need to bleed it in one of two ways. First way is a computer. Second way is driving fast and slamming the brakes, engaging ABS and getting that air out. The second way is foolish

 

I never had any problems bleeding the air from the ABS on my 93 Prizm, I think it had a bleeder on the ABS pump. You can bleed the master on the car by cracking the fittings at the master open, putting the pedal down, then closing them while the pedal is down, just like bleeding at the wheels. That will purge most of the air from the system, the bleed normally. You probably needed new brake fluid anyway. You should bleed all 4 wheels though.

 

I ended up only bleeding four wheels. It took a while, but it all works perfectly. No air, no spongy pedal as far as I can tell. My brake fluid was only a few months old, but fresh fluid is always best!

Also I don't have ABS. In this case, luckily so xD

 

That's good man, problem solved

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Save yourself the headache the next time.

Disconnect the battery.

Use a board or an equivelant to keep the brake pedal depressed. I put it between the seat and the pedal and move the seat forward. Fluid cannot flow with the pedal down.

You have to do a bench bleed on a DRY MC. Yours already had fluid in it, even if most of it leaked out.

-SP

 

Thank you for that info! Very useful for the future!

 

I've used a soccer ball or basketball and a peice of wood between the seat & pedal. The ball will expand and keep the pedal down...it works...I have bought the 1 man bleeder from motive products since then...

 

After a full bleed of every wheel a few times, to the point where fresh fluid was coming out with absolutely no air, the brake pedal feels a little soft the first third. I don't know if it's my head messing with me, but that's what it feels like. Pads and rotors are fairly new, rear drums were done today. Never before did it randomly start getting softer, so I don't think it's any sort of leak. Any advice?

 

Hows the rear adjustment? Shoes should just barely drag the drums.

 

Before the brake job done today, it was perfect. I made sure of it. But after running the master cylinder dry, and bleeding the whole thing through the wheels extensively, it became soft. Didn't change after the rear brakes were done, so the adjustment of the rear brakes isn't the culprit. Handbrake is about the same toughness, so my mechanic adjusted them pretty well and I didn't notice any significant dragging while driving. I can take a look on Friday and adjust them accordingly in case they aren't adjusted properly.

 

It sounds like those are good, just check to be 100% sure. Way back when before I did my own work I had a shop fix a rear brake leak for me and they adjusted the brakes by taking ALL the slack out of the parking brake cable. Totally the wrong way to do it. I'm sure that's not what's going on but make sure just so you have piece of mind. It may not hurt to go around and bleed all the brakes again, also just to make sure all the air is out. As a last resort it's possible that all the long stroke pumping caused the master to fail prematurely since the seals were riding over 'new' areas in their old age. Hard to explain, but I've seen old slightly worn masters fail in this manner before.

 

Thank you for the explanation. I'll be bleeding them again this weekend. But since braking power is about the same, I won't bother replacing any parts until it becomes a usability issue.

 

Bitter- You are supposed to put slack in the parking brake cable when you do rear brakes. Many people adjust the cable instead of the shoes, so when the shoes are replaced the adjustment is off.

Halo- Have another brake trick- Pull off a caliper and push the piton back in. Pump it out and push it back in again. Sometimes you can get trapped air that doesnt seem to want to come out the bleeder but it can be pushed back therough the master cylinder.

Best upgrade that gave me a SOLID pedal was replacing the wimpy rubber hoses with the braided stainless covered ones.

-SP

 

That's some good advice, thank you. I can do that this weekend. What do you use to push in the piston, by the way?

Also, steel braided brake hoses are something I'm buying soon. I have a set on the way for the Miata, and will buy a set for myself on my next paycheck.

 

You can use a c-clamp or one of the now cheap piston pushers. Look on harbor fright.

-SP

 

You can use a c-clamp or one of the now cheap piston pushers. Look on harbor fright.

-SP