question on bleeding m3 brakes w/pressure bleeder

[nightkrawler]

gonna bleed the brake system on the m3 tomorrow. the techs at work were nice enough to lend me a pressure bleeder, a thing to suck the old fluid out of the reservoir, and a catch bottle. the tank has a gauge on it and he told me dont pump it up to any more than a max of 20psi, ok cool. now, what i forgot to ask is exactly what to do with the new fluid. first i figure you remove as much of the old fluid from the reservoir. now do i add the new fluid to the reservoir then attach the tank and pressurize it. or put the new fluid in the tank then attach it to the reservoir and then pressurize it? i think option 2 is correct.
also, it was suggested to do them in this order, RR-LF, LR-RF. any imput or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. also, i want to try and bleed the clutch too. again, any tips would be helpful. thanks.

[Phantom]

nightkrawler,
This topic is covered in-depth in other threads. Try a quick search and you'll find answers to all your questions.

Bleed order = caliper farthest from reservoir to caliper nearest to reservoir (RR, LR, RF, LF)

[fun2drive]

Your biggest issue will be how you are going to pressurize the master cylinder unless they gave you a european universal adapter.
Bleed order makes no difference on ABS cars and you need 26 psi to correctly pressure bleed the system.

I used to do the RR LR RF LF until I read a post here as to how the ABS system works.
Good luck

[Phantom]

Please post a link to that post re: ABS and bleed order. I'd like to read it.

My info indicates that the bleed order considerations are not related to whether you have ABS or not. In other words, bleed order does not affect ABS, and it's best to bleed any brake system from farthest-to-nearest caliper.

Check the Bentley manual.

[nightkrawler]

Your biggest issue will be how you are going to pressurize the master cylinder unless they gave you a european universal adapter.
Bleed order makes no difference on ABS cars and you need 26 psi to correctly pressure bleed the system
Good luck

they gave me the pressure bleeder they use on all the bmw's. it is a tank that you pump up and it has a pressure gauge on top of it, and a line that connects to a cap that you screw on to the reservoir. he is one of our master techs and has 20+ years experience working on bimmers, he said DO NOT put more that 20psi max, and said actually he usually uses a bit less pressure. so i think i'll stay with his recommendation.

[JClark]

A pressure bleeder just forces new fluid through the system, not sucks the old stuff out. It just does what another person would do stomping on the pedal inside your car.

Put the new fluid in the bottle, pressurize (I usually do 15psi as recommended by the Bentley), attach to the resovoir, then open the bleeder valves in whatever order you choose to believe is correct (rr, lr, rf lf, or abs method or whatever). Keep it pressurized and watch the level in the resevoir.

[jayhudson]

Phantom has the correct bleed order. 15-20psi is correct.

Jay

[nightkrawler]

well, got em bleed. brakes work much better but i didn't really get to test them out very well cause i jumped right into another project. but i did rr, lr, rf, lf, and it worked out good except for this rather non humorous part. the tech neglected to tell me that there is a plug in the end of the hose that attaches to the reservoir which needs to be removed before you attach it. so i hook everything up pressurize the mityvac and crack the bleeder..... just a trickle...wtf?!! pump the brake... trickle...wtf?! this goes on for about 20 min. so i look over everything to see what the hell is wrong. so i check the mityvac, it has pressure and is holding, everything is tight etc. so like an idiot and quite frustrated and not thinking straight, i unscrew it from the reservoir, pop! the rubber plug in the end of the hose flys out and hits me directly between the eyes along with a ton of brake fluid! so i run screaming like an idiot into the house to flush out my eyes, man that shit burns!. after that everything went smoothly. and im not blind so i guess it went ok.

[vinay]

lol

[nightkrawler]

it's funny now but when that shit hit me in the eyes, i was definately not laughing.

[Phantom]

Dude,
Get yourself a cheap pair of work goggles. Your eyes are worth it.

While you are at it, a good set of mechanic's gloves are also invaluable. Beats scraping skin off of knuckles and you can work more quickly, too.

[Def]

...and if you got any brake fluid on your paint wash it off with water immediately! Brake fluid will eat your paint away over time. Good thing is its hygroscopic, so you can just wash it off with a hose.

[nightkrawler]

i have goggles and mechanics gloves have saved my hands many times. yeah, i forgot the second part to the story. my aunts maxima was parked right in front of the car. so when the fluid shot out it covered the hood on her car. so as i was running through the house, i was screaming for her to get the damn hose out quick! lol. and on top of everything i woke up just now with a nice sunburn. grrrrreat.....

[docjavier]

...and if you got any brake fluid on your paint wash it off with water immediately! Brake fluid will eat your paint away over time. Good thing is its hygroscopic, so you can just wash it off with a hose.
Wash off the brake fluid off you paint ASAP or you will be sorry.

[nightkrawler]

yeah, that stuff will eat paint. i got it off her hood pretty quick but it still left some marks. good thing the paint is shot anyway on that car and she cant see as well as she used to.. :devillook

[CarbonBlkE36]

all u need is 15lbs or so. the tech is tellin u to keep the pressure down cause too much pressure will cause premature wear on the diapharam and to buy a new 1 its about 75- 100 bux.

[nightkrawler]

yeah, i used around 15 or so when i got everything working right.