Part 2 of 2

7. Now you have fresh brake fluid in the first leg of your braking system. Some folks take a precautionary step and tap the brake caliper with a mallet to get any air bubbles trapped in the caliper to rise up and then do one last pump of the brake pedal to expel these bubbles.

8. Use your 10 mm wrench to close the Speed Bleeder and then remove the silicone tubing from the nipple. Torque the Speed Bleeder to 7 lbf-ft.

9. Repeat this procedure with the passenger front caliper followed by the passenger rear caliper and finally the driver rear caliper making sure to keep filling the brake fluid reservoir to prevent it from draining below the MIN (lower line) marking. For Civics with disc brakes at all four corners the correct torque is 7 lbf-ft for all calipers. For other Civics, the front calipers are torqued to 7 lbf-ft and the rear drums are torqued to 5 lbf-ft.

10. Once all of the brakes have been bled, reinstall the brake fluid strainer and top off the brake fluid to the MAX (upper line) marking and then reinstall the black reservoir cap. Now check your work by firmly pressing the brake pedal. Check to make sure there are no leaks and that the pedal feels firm. Install the new dust caps that are included on the Speed Bleeders and reinstall your wheels, torquing the lug nuts according to the Owner’s Manual. Be sure to pump your brakes a few times once you’ve started the engine and before you drive away to make sure they operate correctly. Perform a few test stops to once again ensure correct brake system operation.


Clutch Bleeding and Speed Bleeder Installation

Installing the Speed Bleeder and bleeding the clutch line is very similar to the procedures for the brakes but there are definitely a few things you should know before doing this. I’ve done my best to capture them in the following steps.

For the clutch, be sure to leave the cap on the clutch fluid reservoir when you remove the bleeder bolt from the slave cylinder and install the Speed Bleeder. If you have the reservoir cap off and then open the bleeder bolt, the fluid will siphon through the clutch line and you’ll end up with tons of air in the line and a mess on the ground (Don’t ask me how I learned about this :laughing: ).

1. Locate the clutch slave cylinder located on the forward side of the transmission and accessible by reaching down between the radiator and the throttle body or up from where the radiator drain **** is located. With your 8 mm wrench, remove the clutch bleed bolt and replace it with the Speed Bleeder. Torque to 5.8 lbf-ft torque (round up to 6 lbf-ft if your “click type” torque wrench isn’t precise enough to do 5.8 lbf-ft).

2. Open the Speed Bleeder ¼ - ½ turn and attach your silicone tubing to the nipple, attaching the other end to your bleeder bag or placing it in your catch container.

3. Remove the clutch fluid reservoir cap and the black “boot” from inside the reservoir. Use the plastic syringe with a short length of silicone tubing attached to the end to stir up any sediment in the reservoir and then suck out as much fluid as possible.

4. Refill the clutch fluid reservoir to the MAX (upper) line with fresh fluid and begin pumping the clutch pedal slowly. You may need to use your hand to return the pedal to its normal position. Old fluid should be flowing out of the slave cylinder each time the pedal is depressed. Keep an eye on the clutch fluid reservoir since you will only get a few pumps before it will need refilled.

5. Once fresh fluid has made it through to the silicone tubing and no bubbles are being expelled, you are through pumping the clutch pedal. Now fill the clutch fluid reservoir to some point below the MAX (upper) line and replace the black rubber “boot”. Note that the black rubber “boot” displaces some clutch fluid so you may need to experiment with how far to fill the reservoir so that once the black rubber “boot” is inserted, the clutch fluid is at or just below the MAX (upper) line. Once you have successfully added the correct amount of fluid and replaced the black rubber “boot”, cap the clutch fluid reservoir.

6. Remove the silicone tubing from the clutch slave cylinder Speed Bleeder nipple and tighten the Speed Bleeder bolt to 5.8 lbf-ft as described in step one. Check operation of the clutch by depressing and releasing the clutch pedal a few times. No fluid should leak from the slave cylinder area. Now place the new dust cap over the Speed Bleeder nipple and you should be good to go. Be sure to start your car in neutral (not just with the clutch pedal depressed) so that the car will not jump if the clutch isn’t declutching (this could happen if you had a large amount of air trapped in the line or if you forgot to tighten the bleeder bolt). Test-drive your car; making sure the clutch operates correctly.

Once you've got the Speed Bleeders installed you simply need to open each bleeder (one at a time in the correct order, of course), stomp the brakes a few times (keep an eye on the fluid level in the reservoir), close the bleeder, move on to the next three and then you're done. It will take more time to put your car up on stands and take the wheels off than actually bleeding your brakes!

One more note: if you live where the roads are salted during the winter or you just like to have the best products on your car, consider upgrading to stainless steel Speed Bleeders over the standard plating. It costs about twice as much but they will be even less likely to pit and corrode the way some parts can when exposed to the ice and salt every year and they look pretty nice, too!

 

how do you benefit from this? it pretty easy to do with a one man bleeder. why add a "speed" bleeder?

 

he just ruined your thread to post something useless.

how do you benefit from this? it pretty easy to do with a one man bleeder. why add a "speed" bleeder?

Some of the less expensive vacuum (one man) systems are pretty cheesy so you pretty much need to spend a decent amount of money ($100 and up) to get a respectable vacuum unit. Pressurized bleeders are a lot more money ($400 and up) and probably only make sense if you're a mechanic who bleeds a bunch of different cars.

For less than $40 you can get four of these for the brakes and one for the clutch and all it takes is opening each one once, stomping the brakes (or clutch) a few times, close the bolt and you're done. No adapters to play with and the Speed Bleeders stay on your car.

 

The ease in which the fluid drains from the install of the speed bleeders is awesome. Probably will only take me about 30 minutes to drain and refill the blake fluid for the entire car on the next go around. Definitely recommend it especially for only $40.:thumb:

 

Excellent DIY.. very descriptive and detailed. Great job +1

 

Hi there! Do i really need to get a speed bleeder bolt to bleed my brakes? Can i just use the OEM bleeder bolt? Thanks!

 

Nope. Don't have to have them. They just save you from needing two people and having to open and close the OEM bleeder bolt on every down and up stroke of the brake pedal. Takes me about 1/2 the time to do my brakes with the speed bleeders.

 

great diy

 

hey, such agreat dyi, got a noooob question. my clutch pedal feeels sooo soft, can i rechange my clutch fluid and would tht help? p.s. i had my clutch replaced, and i assumed they had o drain the fluid nd put some more. i checked the resvoir, its full buy my pedal isss sooooo soft. i want my clutch pedal to me more stiffeer.. sorry to hijack the thread..

 

Start with bleeding the clutch with fresh fluid. That should ensure there's no air in the line which would make the pedal feel soft.

 

Great write up!

 

Another thought: You could change out the rubber portion of your clutch line with a braided stainless steel line (CorSport sells them). I don't have any experience with SS clutch lines, but if you can't find anything else wrong and there's no air in the line, you might consider this option.

 

WWOOOOWWW!!!! wait a minute!!! I'm a noob and I'm kinda confused! The clutch fluid reservoir this guy doing the diy says "blake fluid" on the cap...what gives? is this guy right?? what's the deal?

 

That's because you use the same kind of fluid (brake fluid) in both the brake system and the clutch system. Should be DOT 3 or 4 on our cars.

 

Oh. You learn something every day

 

:rotfl:

 

aper:

 

BTW, notice he says fresh sealed containers.

This is because brake fluid absorbs humidity out of the air, and will be contaminated if left open for any period of time.

 

Does anyone know where the clutch bleeder bolt is on an LX?

 

My factory service manual is out of reach right now but all you need to do is follow the line from the reservoir all of the way down to the transmission and it will be located within a few inches of that. Look for a smaller bleeder than the brakes. Something like an 8mm vs the brakes being a 10mm.

 

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Honda recommends that Civic brake fluid be replaced every three years. How do dealers bleed brakes for a fluid replacement? A pressurized system? I'm not sold on the Speed Bleeder bolts and was thinking about making one of these pressure bleeders. Any thoughts?


bleeder

Also, one person's opinion on one-man bleeders:
I don't like the concept of a 1-man bleeder 'cause - The 5 Series (E39) Message Board

Interesting. I've installed 5 sets and have never had any sort of problem with them failing to either prevent fluid from coming back into the system or any other issue. I could see how if you had large brake hoses and a big loop to trap air and you were unable to apply normal braking force to the pedal to get good flow through the line during flushing you could have air that wouldn't get flushed out but I don't think that's happening on any of the cars I've worked on. I use the catch bag and silicone hose that they sell for $6 and I know about how many pumps it takes to get fresh fluid to each caliper and since the tube is clear I can just look forward or back for the driver's side or get up and look at the passenger side to see if fresh fluid has made it through the caliper. Maybe my brake systems were never really that dirty to begin with so I was never gumming up the check valve with crud, but the check valve absolutely works! I don't see the fluid revert upstream inside the clear tube at all between pumps. I have to call BS on this theory if you're a car enthusiast or at least a maintenance enthusiast that bleeds your brakes on a somewhat regular basis.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of the pressure pump system because you end up having to depressurize it every time you need to add fluid to the reservoir and since I use and entire quart when I bleed my system that would be a lot of work to pressurize/depressurize the pump vs. just topping the reservoir off every 15 pumps of the pedal or so.

Speedbleeders have been working for me since I installed my first set (circa 2001). There are other ways to bleed brakes but the old fashioned "open and close" over and over again with each pump of the pedal is something I'll never go back to.

 

^hmmm,makes me think speed bleeders are a waste then.

 

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You don't depressurize to add fluid to the reservoir. You put the entire quart of fluid into the pressurized tank. The air pressure in the tank keeps the reservoir full for all four calipers.

That's a fact I wasn't aware of. Makes it much more attractive than what I was thinking as long as there's absolutely no chance of blowing out the fluid while it's under pressure in the reservoir. If I end up dripping brake fluid or worse, blowing it all over my engine bay since it's not contained in the reservoir because of a leak or some sort of separation (since the reservoir, by nature, is not pressurized during normal operation) then you couldn't convince me it was worth it if it cost me $0.

At $7.00 each, that's $140! Another benefit to the pressure system is that you can use it on any car and build it for $30.

Point taken even though one set was on somebody else's car and two pairs were about 8 years ago.

 

Is the car off or is it running at the point of pumping the pedal?

 

Their email support SUCKS!!!

Emailed them twice the past 2 weeks with no response.

EDIT: Got a response on my third attempt and they prompty resolved my issue.

 

They also make stainless steel speed bleeders. I put them on my Toyota Tundra because of the climate I live in. There is nothing worse then going to loosen a bleeder bolt and it shears off because it is rusted in the caliper. Bleeder bolts are cheaper to replace than calipers or wheel cylinders. I will be buying the stainless ones for my Si shortly. The plain steel bleeders are part# SB10125. The stainless steel bleeders are part# SSSB10125. They are the same for front and rear discs.

 

Thanks for the DIY!! Finally got it done on my LX (front disc, rear drum, 75K miles).

The only thing that scared me was putting the new bleeder plugs on. Even the initial turn was tight, so I wasn't sure if I was forcing the plugs in or not. Other than that, I had no other problems with the bleed.

But my right-rear brakes did have a small leak after my long drive, which forced the black cover off the plug. I re-tightened the bleeder plug and replaced the cover that came with the bleeder bag/tube. Haven't leaked since.

OT: Checked my front pads and still had plenty of life in them. All four wheels were off anyway, so I went ahead and rotated the tires.

 

that is a nice DIY...love it so much

 

Installed these today. Works great and very easy to follow. Thanks.