Do I need to do anything special to bleed front brakes only?

Did you open the hydraulic connections at some point of your pad-replacement job? Bleeding is only needed if you did and air could have entered.

The system is electronically controlled front and rear. What's different about the fronts is that there are two front hydraulic circuits: the one used when the brakes are operating normally, and the one used as a fail-safe during fault conditions.

The fail-safe circuit behaves like conventional car brakes, when the car is off. If you "pump the brakes with the car off and just open the bleeders" you're bleeding that circuit. That's not the one used in normal operation, though.

If you're sure the only air in the system is down at the caliper ends of the lines, it can still be enough to get that air out.

 

I'm glad we agree on not needing to bleed the brakes when changing brake pads. Suspect cars a 1/2 century ago probably weren't as reliable with hyrdalics and flushing and bleeding was part of every break pad change.

 

I often will open the bleed screw while pushing back the piston for a pad replacement, so I am not forcing the fluid from the caliper back upstream into the high-rent parts of the brake system.

But if I'm going to do that, I start with an upward loop of fluid-filled hose attached to the bleeder, so when I open it there will be no air going in, and only fluid coming out. Then I can just close the bleeder again, with no need—as I guess we agree—to do any brake bleeding as a follow-up.