Hey guys. While bleeding my brake system earlier today I accidently ran the master cylinder res. dry. Obviously ill need to completely re-bleed the system. Am I going to have any issues with the clutch system or air in the ABS module as a result of this? Thanks

 

Did you refill it before using the brakes or clutch pedal? Which bleed method?
If not, you probably just need to thoroughly rebleed the line that you were bleeding when it ran dry,
before using the brake or clutch, and would do the other 3 also for good measure.

If you pushed the clutch when dry, will need to bleed that (with the slave compressed).
If you used the brakes when dry, you could get some air in the ABS system which can
be difficult to get out.
Using the brakes to the point the ABS kicks in before things get re-bled greatly increases
the chances of air getting into the ABS system.
Several flushes with activating the ABS between tries may work, but could conceivably
need someone to activate the ABS by factory scan tool while bleeding.

 

-We bled it the old school method. One person pushing and releasing the pedal, while the other opens and closes the bleed nipple.

-It was refilled before any further brake, however there was the initial brake pump during bleeding where the pedal went to the floor which made me realized the res. was empty.

-The clutch has not been used at all since it was ran dry.

-Thanks for the info. The car is still up on jack stands as i was able to finish the line i was bleeding, and re-bleed one more before i ran out of fluid. I plan on leaving it on jack stands until i can re-bleed all of the lines thoroughly at the very least.

 

Sounds like all will be good by the time you rebleed the lines again.

 

Sweet thanks for your assistance. Ill update it if it still have any problems afterward.

 

The only thing you can do now is re-bleed that line first and then the others. Depending on the wheel but I would run about 1/2 quart of fluid to make sure air bubbles are gone. (FYI, the entire system needs about 1 Liter for a full flush.) A scan tool is required to bleed the ABS.

I flushed 2 cars this past weekend (Mini, VW New Beetle) using a Motive Pressure Bleeder. I mixed a bit of Ate Super Blue fluid with Valvoline synthetic brake fluid to give it a tinge of blue. With one liter in the Motive, open the bleeder valve and watch the fluid run till it changes color.

 

Thanks for the advice. I've got a lot of brake fluid on the way and a vacuum bleeder as well. I take car of my families cars as well so I got one that would handle all different types of cars.

Do you think ill have any issues with air in the ABS? I'm not too familiar with the physical ABS and how its plumbed into the system.

 

The ABS unit sits high up on the passenger-side cowl, so it's highly possible that it has air trapped in it if the reservoir was empty. Air travels upward.

The bleeding process from the Bentley manual...
1. Bleed all 4 cylinders.
2. Use scan tool to put ABS module in bleed mode, then bleed ABS.
3. Re-bleed 4 corners again.

My technique...
1. Bleed all 4 cylinders.
2. Wait for the rain (in SoCal), find an empty parking lot and drive & brake hard to lock up the wheels. ABS will kick in... do it a few times.
3. If I feel like Hercules, I would re-bleed the system... but most of the time I don't.

FYI: I haven't 'manually' activated the ABS on the Mini for the recent flush. However, I've used this method since 2001 on a New Beetle that now has 209k. The main reason for regular flushing is to protect the ABS unit, which on a Mini is ~$1700k. BTW, DSC employs ABS... same unit.