My brakes have been mushy since buying the car, so I finally got around to replacing the fluid. I used one of those air assist vacuum bleeder last night and keep getting TONS of air bubbles when bleeding. The manual states not to pump the brake pedal because it will fill the line with air so I just attached the sucker and cracked the bleed valve. I made sure the resivoir was full at all times. Am I doing something wrong?? The brakes still feel mushy but the car stops OK.

 

Lots of valves and such with our braking system. I found that gravity bleeding works well on our cars.

With the SRT6 level on jack stands - I used the clear tubing that came with my boost gauge (cut into four pieces) I slipped one end onto each caliper nipple and the other end into a small container to catch the fluid.

I had the brakes completely apart so there was no old fluid, but you could also use a turkey baster and suck most of the fluid out of the master cylinder to speed the process.

If you use a different color brake fluid it will help to see when the old fluid is completely flushed. I used ATE SuperBlue and a resevoir feeder to keep the master cylinder from emptying.

Then cracked all the calipers and watched until a steady bubble-free flow was going thru the tubes. Then closed each caliper.

Only regret I have was the Rotex Gold pads. Great when new and sure kept the dust away, but not a good performance pad. (and not supposed to be)

Hope this helps.

 

Odds are you did not have a good seal on the bleeder or the bleeder was opened too far and you were getting air around the bleeder valve threads.

Keep valve on the vac only slightly open and just barely open the bleeder on the xaliper until you start to get fluid draining, any more and you will get an air leak.
And of course keep the reservoir full.

IMO the Crossfire does not have a real firm brake pedal anyway.

 

motion industries power bleeder is the best way to bleed the brakes. also start at the pass. rear then drivers rear then pass front then drivers front last in the bleeding

 

Great advice! Thanks guys. Ha, Brian I have that same reservoir filler. The air going around the bleeder threads makes sense. I'll try again this weekend. Thanks again.

 

If you crack the bleeder too far it actually sucks air in through the threads of the bleeder screw. That being said, none of the air is in the abs unit, the only reason the manual states not to pump the brake pedal is they dont want the abs unit getting full of air, because it takes an overly expensive and very fancy tool to bleed the abs manifold.

You should be fine using the good old fashioned method. The pressure bleeding only gets you so far, the get that last little bit of air out you need line pressure that only the brake master can provide.

 

tunaglove - I was also having an issue with a soft brake pedal feel. Bled the brakes several times and it did not help. Car stopped fine but the pedal was scary. I took the advice of Rob at "Needswings" and put on a set of Goodrich stainless steel braided brake hoses, front and rear. WOW! What a difference. The pedal is now very firm feeling and the brakes behave like a normal new car. You might want to call Rob at Needswings, or drop him an email. He sure solved my problem.

Jim

 

You realize this is an 8 year old thread...

 

James 1549 - I do now! I never look at the dates, just the thread. I will start watching the dates.

Thanks,

Jim

 

Nothing wrong with adding a solution to older threads though. Majority of the time people make threads and never reply back explaining if they resolved the issue or not.