I installed some brake pads and rotors today. I got distracted by a friend of mine talking to me and while compressing the two pistons on one side of the front caliper, one of the pistons on the other side quickly popped out and the rubber boot came loose and it leaked maybe a teaspoon of brake fluid. I was able to push the seal back in and everything was fine.

Now I'm all done, expecting to have a mushy pedal. Well, I was right.

NOW... on to my question. In order to fix this problem, should the entire brake system be bled, or just that caliper? Also are there any percautions to take if that seal pops out? Is stuffing it back into place good enough? I drove the car home and it doesn't seem to be leaking. Just a mushy pedal.

Also, I know there is a specific order you're supposed to bleed these cars. Not only which corner to bleed first but inner/outter as well. Anyone?

 

After searching a bit I found the order in which to bleed the entire system.

Now as far as the boot, Like I said I pushed it back into place, is that good enough?

I'm nervous to bleed my brakes. I've bled brakes a MILLION times before on normal calipers. After searching it seems like everybody has problmes with Evo's! It makes me worry

 

At the Porsche dealership we deal with very similar calipers, if you can get your hands on a pressure bleeder, it will make the job alot easier(motive products). We find if you have alot of air in the calipers, tapping on the caliper with a soft hammer while you have the bleeder open helps the air move out. Good luck, it should be pretty straight forward.

 

We have a vaccum bleeder powered by compressed air. Is "pressure bleeder" just another name for it? I use it all the time. I was going to manually bleed the old fashion "two person" way.

 

A pressure bleeder mounts to the master cylinder resivoir and pressurizes the system. Instead of having someone pump the brakes this keeps a constant pressure on the system without the aid of another person. But the two person method is tried and true, you can't go wrong with that.

 

Evo is not too bad, just has an extra bleeder. Do bleed the whole system. I have had the same thing happen on my SVTF.

 

The boot is there to keep out road dust. The piston must of come out far enough to be beyond the seal behind the boot in order to leak.

The brake pedal will most likely firm up after bleeding just that one caliper.

That said, it isn't a bad idea to do all four to distribute new brake fluid throughout the system. Brake fluid, over time, becomes wet - it absorbs moisture. This absorption of moisture is slowly occurring even if the system is never opened. Wet brake fluid has a lower boiling point. This absorption of moisture, if you race, can mean losing the brakes suddenly when the fluid gets hot enough to reach its boiling point. If you do not race, wet fluid is still bad because it can rust out steel brake lines.

First of all, to do this, you need to buy new brake fluid. Pay attention to what it says on the container concerning boiling point. Brake fluid is available with boiling points all the way from 240 to over 500 degrees. Higher is better. Much of the stuff you find at the local Walmart will read 240 degrees.

The order of bleeding for routine bleeding isn't all that important. Three things are important when bleeding: not letting the master cylinder run dry during bleeding, adding fluid from a newly opened container and not having the master cylinder open when the humidity is very high.

Ordinarily, just having someone depress and hold down the brake pedal is all you need to do while bleeding calipers. Pressure or vacuum bleeders are used when the system is dry although they do make routine bleeding a one person operation.

 

Time to do a "FLUSH" change all the fluid get the clutch while your at it.

 

OK, well here's a funny story. Well not really a story. The pedal being mushy wasn't due to the brake needing bled. I actually never bled the brakes today, but I fixed the problem

So those of you who have changed you pads before know that there are dimples in the pads and the shim to align them. Well my new pads didn't have the dimples. I ignored this and installed them anyway thinking it wouldn't be a problem. Well... now there is a roughly 1/16" gap between the pad and shim. What was happening, was the "mushy pedal" was the pistons trying to smash those dimples and I didn't have a hard pedal until the was enough pressure to crush the shim flush with the pad.

So I pulled the shims out today, hit the dimples with a hammer and smashed them flush, used plently of hi-temp brake pad grease and re-installed. Magicly I had a hard brake pedal again! No need to flush the already clean and new fluid!

I feel retarded. I had a HORRIBLE day at work today. Was there 6:30am until 8:00pm. Worst day of my life. I'm so glad I didn't have to bleed the brakes. Who KNOWS what could have possibly gone wrong. Probably everything.

 

Just out of curiosity, which break pads did you put on the car.

 

Ferodo DS2500.

I was actually sent the WRONG rear pads from Ferodo themselves. I bought them through MAP but they were shipped from Ferodo, so It's not MAP's fault. The rear pads are for an Evo X. I checked the part numbers. The font pads are correct, they just didn't have the dimples for the facotry shims.