Gen 2 Brake Bleeding without Tech Stream

I wouldn't count on it getting the whole job done. Even in Gen 3 it doesn't: Gen 3 has two separate hydraulic circuits for the front brakes, one normal, one failsafe; when "done in the conventional way", only the failsafe circuit gets bled.

 

there are utubes on it, its not complex i did it without techstream ...

 

Gen 3 Repair Manual has two instructions for bleeding brakes: one with Techstream and one without.

Gen 2 Repair Manual has ONLY a Techstream instruction.

My 2 cents: have dealership do it. There's a lot of mentions of "stealership" and overpricing, but you don't know till you ask. Hopefully they're competent and not price-gouging, talk to several dealerships if practical. A fair price at dealership for a brake fluid change (I would ask for a fluid change) would be around $100~150.

I'll attach the 2nd gen (Techstream) instruction, and fwiw the two 3rd gen methods.

 

its been a while but i was nreally glad i ididnt take it to stealership to pay their exorbidant fees ...

 

I am trying to do a gen too right now and with the car not completely back together the inverter still out of the car I was just sucking on the back brake right rear with my mighty vac I sucked the equivalent of 3/4 of the reservoir through my mighty vac and still have air bubbles almost the same amount of bubbles as I had when I started my connection doesn't seem to be loose on the zerk fitting I have it just cracked not open 10 turns it's not loose and it's bored the zerk fitting it doesn't seem to be sucking air around it I am not trying to put high amount of vacuum to it just very little to pull the fluid it drips accurately but when I try to pull it through the mighty vacs tubes into the reservoir of the mighty vac it just goes berserk with air bubbles the mighty vacuum using also has like a solid quarter inch tube size maybe even 5/16 ID where I thought my almighty back was like a quarter inch like a refrigerator water line in the old days. But my pedal does feel better but I think I'm going to put the car back together I don't see any leaks I haven't tried to make the ABS pump turn on as that will make it a problem bleeding until I've basically bled it from what I read in the instructions posted above

 

Didn't catch this post at the time, but anyway, that's not the case. Gen 3 repair manual has two instructions for replacing brake fluid, one with Techstream and one without. You are replacing if (1) the system is already filled with fluid, (2) it is already bled of all bubbles, and (3) you are letting new fluid in and old fluid out, without letting any new bubbles get in.

If any bubbles are in the system, you are bleeding. not replacing fluid, and Gen 3 still has only a Techstream procedure for doing that, if any of the bubbles are in the underhood bits.

If you are only trying to bleed air in the lines to the wheel cylinders (as you might after a caliper replacement, say), and you're sure no bubbles are in the underhood parts, you can get away with ad hoc methods for that, if you're careful.

 

I've been sucking on the backs on one side the right rear and the mighty vac is just pulling constant bubbles it won't even fill my mighty vac hose which is clear with fluid it just kind of runs down gets to the end of the hose connected to the container from the mighty vac and just bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles I've sucked a whole reservoir worth of fluid through the system without letting it catch air I just keep it full nothing did the reft side too. Almost exactly the same The car is not capable of running at this point it's just sitting here The pedal feels pretty damn good actually just sitting here way better than it's ever felt since I've had the car of course that may vanish when the power comes on and I haven't even bled the front which I'm fixing to go do that now apparently if it looks like if I do the front and get them and then put the relays in and go to do the back it may work we will see

 

A vacuum bleeder usually sucks air past the bleeder screw threads unless you put antiseize or silicone grease on them beforehand. Even then I still don't use them- especially on drum brakes. Wheel cylinders often suck air past the piston cup seals as they are designed to hold positive pressure, not negative.

I got a small 1 gallon diaphragm type pressure bleeder tank maybe 30 years ago and haven't looked back since. Adapters for the master cylinder reservoir can be somewhat pricey (at least good ones are), but so worth it.

That said, you can have lots of air in the rear brake circuits and it will not affect pedal height or feel at all- the rears are only operated by the ecu and have no connection to the master cylinder.

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Yep found that out pretty quickly once you've bled the front manually and then go to the rear and put the relays back in . And have someone hold the pedal down with the car on crack the bleed screw and it just squirts out until it doesn't or air comes out then fluid and that's it that went very quickly I'll never try to drip bleed or pull on the backs ever because they're controlled by a pump that'll do it all for you for free. I had an old snap on pressure bleeder many of the fittings were long gone but now you can get a lot of them in plastic the fittings that is so that's not too too bad. Then a few years later I got a blue point tool that's kind of like a mighty vac but it doesn't hand pump it works like the Venturi valve vacuum tool for an air conditioner plugs into the compressor and pulls air across the Venturi and makes a vacuum waste a lot of air though

 

I followed the advice from this thread and it worked brilliantly.

 

That was an interesting old thread; the advice in it mutated several times as the thread progressed.

It's good to keep in mind that's a thread about bleeding the rear brakes, specifically. You can kind of get away with that without a scan tool (and really, all you need is a Brake Rock to do it.

When choosing a bleed method, it's good to think about where you believe the air might be. If it is only in the lines out to the wheel cylinders (as it might be, say, if you just changed one), you have more choices. If there is a chance of bubbles being inside the underhood components, you won't get it all out without a scan tool.

Something often forgotten is that there are two different hydraulic circuits serving the front brakes, and there are valves in the actuator controlling which one is active, and without a scan tool working those valves for you, nothing you do gets the air out of both.

 

Well I guess I'm waiting for the air to move around or show up or something because I had the whole actuator pump accumulator thingy completely off so where those lines been the fluid dripped out to where the bend is obviously so those are all you know those eight lines about an inch worth of air maybe two and each line have that air when I start. So what I do is hook up the main feed of brake fluid to the actuator and wait for fluid to start running out of all those little ports it does all by itself and then I offer the lines up loosely. Let brake fluid essentially drip into the line as it will with a little air coming around it then tighten them all up. When I bled the rear brakes with three lays out and the girlfriend holding the brake pedal down it squirted right on out saw the air come out saw the straight fluid come out topped off the reservoir did the other side. I guess without the text stream I can't do the same in the front so all I've done is bled them like normal. And that's where I'm at the brakes feel great work great they don't smoke all four wheel wells anymore and all the lights are out I now found my cable for tech stream I will have a look and see if I can even get to the Brakw bleeding screens . But as of right now breaking seems spot on fluid in the master reservoir is perfect and nothing is changed in 3 days usually in a car that I have that's not been bled properly and has air in the lines if it sits overnight when I first step on the pedal in the morning it doesn't seem correct we haven't seen that yet.

 

That post of the 14 pages that I downloaded should have been right in here somewhere where we were talking about bleeding the Gen 2 brakes. Maybe they sent it to me directly I may have the 14 printed pages sitting out here somewhere on the shelf if I find them I'll make note of the section that they're in. And I would believe a Gen 2 would have been made so that it could be field bled without tech. The Gen 3 however and moving forward I guarantee you they would not be they're Americanized prii. And that being said you're not going to be allowed to do anything without buying something expensive or buying something hacked to do it and here we are but the Gen 2 you can do without tech. I just did it I have no lights my brakes are working beautifully My skid control is working properly as far as I can tell as is the traction control so I wish I had something to worry about but unfortunately I don't so there we go.

 

Thanks for posting the instructions on bleeding a gen 2. I will be changing my ABS modulator soon with a new one (not junkyard). I don't have Techstream but have a XTool 7 scanner. They allege that this tool can do the brake bleed procedure. Unfortunately, there aren't any good videos on gen 2 brake bleeding. Part not coming for a week so I am getting organized.