Has anyone here put "Speed Bleeders" on their MINI's brakes? I'm considering it (since I like all things to be fast), but I wanted to know if anyone here had any experience that they could relate.

Thanks!

 

We are going to put them on davecsumini's car in the next couple weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Cool. Thanks! They seem like a pretty great product for the solo mechanic, but my one fear is that installation will likely be an ungodly mess.

 

They go on very simply with little mess. Actually less mess than bleeding the brakes.

But there is some seepage, so do it in the drivewaay not the garage. so you can hose it off. (brake fluid is washes off with water, spray away)

After you have installed them bleeding the brakes is a no mess afair. put onthe hose and catch bag, squeeze the brakes, go on to the next one. NO mess

 

>>We are going to put them on davecsumini's car in the next couple weeks.

5/27 Thursday appointment.

 

Where are you buying them from that fit a MINI.???
Not to far off topic, are you using braided SS and teflon bake line's too?

 

Speed Bleeders are really not a one person job as you can't watch for bubbles and pump the brakes at the same time. Another solution is to use a power bleeder. About the same cost and much easier when you need to replace your fluid.

 

Chitown

SpeedBleeders are actually made near Joliet. When I picked them up for my Audi, I actually went to his manufacturing shed. Nice guy. And, these things work great. They really do the job.

Why I like them over a Power Bleeder is that the brakes can still be bled by one person in the paddock with nothing but a catch bottle, flexible hose, small wrench and a can of new brake fluid.

 

Wow! I didn't even notice the location of manufacture. A shed you say? Sounds very low tech. Cool!

 

>>Where are you buying them from that fit a MINI.???

http://www.speedbleeder.com

>>Not to far off topic, are you using braided SS and teflon bake line's too?

I'll be replacing the brake lines with braided ones as well. :smile:

Speed Bleeder

 

Power bleeder???

What brand are you referring to? I would like to change my brake fluid to one with a higher temp rating. Any suggestions?

 

A power bleeder attaches to the reservoir and uses either an in-line air compressor or a hand-pump action to pressurize the system to force fluid out, rather than force you to pump the pedal. Speed bleeders are just different bleeder valves that replace the originals. The speed bleeders have a spring and ball valve (as seen above) that allows you to just crack the nut and then pump the brakes up a few times to force the fluid out, without requiring you to keep closing the nut in between pumps and without allowing any air back into the system.

Ate is the high-temp fluid that most folks are using. The Super Blue and the "regular" amber colored one. They're both the same fluid, but it's easier to see the new fluid by changing from stock to blue, and then subsequently from blue to amber in the future.

 

>>Power bleeder???
>>
>>What brand are you referring to? I would like to change my brake fluid to one with a higher temp rating. Any suggestions?

I use a Motive bleeder. Check it out at Motive Products. It's a great tool. Takes about 45 minutes to replace fluids. No runs, no drips, no errors.

Andy

 

Do you use the Import bleeder ao the universal? I also have 2 Fords and a early Camaro so if the universal would work good I would pick that. Thanks for the help.

 

The European bleeder kit will fit your MINI. I am going to get the universal adapter for my mustang one of these days.

I just noticed their price on ATE is pretty good. Under $10.

 

How much fluid do you need to fully replace the brake system?

 

I'm thinking it'd be a good idea to have 2 quarts (or liters) on hand for a full flush... anyone?

 

You need 2 to get a complete flush. You won't use much of the second one. but you need a bit extra in the bleeder tank.

_________________


03 MC CR/B. Rogue exhaust, Pipercross induction intake.

 

Dan, MINI-Madness has Motive Power Bleeder. :smile:

 

>>I'm thinking it'd be a good idea to have 2 quarts (or liters) on hand for a full flush... anyone?

I just bled my brakes using blue on Saturday. Took less than 1 liter. SuperBlue cans are 1 liter Motul bottles are 1/2 liter. Takes slightly more than 1 bottle of mutul and less than a can of blue.

Paul

 

paulmon,
Thanks for the info. I ordered the motive bleeder and 2 cans of superblue yesterday. I guess the extra can be used at a later date. How often should the fluid be changed?

davecsumini,
Thanks but no thanks. After George sent me the e-mail slamming Alta and Randy Webb I no longer will purchase any products from Mini Maddness. I will gladly pay the extra shipping charges to support vendors that do not use negative advertising or other tactics to sell product. This is just my opinion.
Dan

 

>>>>I'm thinking it'd be a good idea to have 2 quarts (or liters) on hand for a full flush... anyone?
>>
>>I just bled my brakes using blue on Saturday. Took less than 1 liter. SuperBlue cans are 1 liter Motul bottles are 1/2 liter. Takes slightly more than 1 bottle of mutul and less than a can of blue.
>>
>>Paul

I used a whole can of ate blue to flush my brakes. Did you wait until you got a deep blue color out of your bleeder screw or just a blue tint. I found that I had to let it run for a while after blue showed up until I got the same tint of blue that was going in the system.

Andy

 

Thanks to Mike (early_apex) for his help! We bled the brake, replaced the lines with steel braided ones, and also the speed bleeder. It was straight forward. It did require the entire bottle of ATE blue to bleed all the fluid. We bled until the blue color coming out of the valve is the same as the fluids going into the brake reservoir. Initially, the color is yellow, then green, blue green, and eventually, blue.

With the speed bleeder, we didn't use any pressure pump even for a one-man job. The good old quadriceps did all the work!

 

How difficult was the brake line install? I can't help but notice that there's never been a "How To."

 

The brake line install is easy. The mess is the worst of it, have towels/newspaper/rubber floormats/etc handly to catch and clean it up. Brake fluid makes paint angry.

The late 03s and 04s have banjo bolts in the front and non-banjos in the rear. The rear bolts that attach to the caliper are fixed into the brake line, so you have to undo the master cylinder side first. Loosen the 11mm nut on the backside of the setup to undo that end of the line and then unbolt the 14mm nut thingy at the caliper.

Fronts are easier to get at. I would recommend doing the master cylinder side first and using a bleeder valve cap to plug the line to reduce the mess. Installation is the reverse of removal. On the rears attach the caliper side first.

We had a problem with one of the rears where we didn't tighten a caliper side bolt enough. On Dave's car those bolts only have 1-2 threads showing when they are all the way in.

As I understand the early-03 and 02 cars have banjo bolts all around, which would make the process easier.

The speed bleeders made the brake bleeding process so much easier. 1 person could easily bleed with these, though 2 is still better. You figure you can get 6 or so pumps before you empty the reservoir, check the tube for clean fluid, top of the reservoir, pump some more.

I've never used a pressure bleeder, so I can't compare the two.