Brian the chemist wrote:

> 10.)  Place cap on resvoir.  Pump brakes (car off) to seat pads on rotors,
> pump until the pedal feels firm (3-5 times usually).  Hold to floor, have
> helper loosten bleed screw, and let fluid out.  Repeat until fresh new
> fluid comes out.


All right, I wasn't going to bring this up because it's freakin'
embarassing, but ya bastards made me do it.

When bleeding brakes, DO NOT PUSH THE PEDAL ALL THE WAY TO THE FLOOR
WHEN THE BLEEDER SCREW IS OPEN.  Why not?  Let me show you the $500 bill
from my dealer to replace my master cylinder last week.  After I bled my
brakes, the pedal was way soft.  Thought I had air in the lines because
I had let the reserviour (sp?) get low one time, so I bled it again.
Same result.  I took it in to my dealer, who ended up replacing the
master cylinder.  I consulted with Don (of the list), and he and my
dealer both mentioned the problem of pushing the pedal too far.  When
you use the brakes, you never push the pedal all the way.  It's almost
impossible because of the pressure required.  If you push the piston in
the master cylinder past this normal travel, you may push the seals into
any gunk or corrosion in the bore, ruining them, or you may just push
through the seals, which is probably what happened to me.  A new master
cylinder cost me $308.  Not fun.  I would say place a piece of 2x4 or
similar under the pedal if you do it yourself.  Or have the dealer bleed
the brakes, it's only about $50.

The only humorous thing to come out of this humiliation was the panicked
call form the dealer when they went to bleed the brakes and all of this
"blue stuff" came out of the lines.  Seems they'd never heard of ATE
Super Blue before ($15 bucks a quart down the drain)...

Eric
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