Alright, so I was upgrading the brakes and lines in my MINI today and I somehow managed to strip the first few threads it looks like in the right rear caliper housing while installing new stainless lines. I'm thinking MAYBE I can save it if I run a tap through it since the rest of it seems fine, but I don't know. Does anyone happen to know what size tap I would need? I don't have a way to accurately measure it and the thread pitch needed.

If I end up having to replace the caliper, do I really have to remove the e-brake cable entirely like the book says?! It also tells me I need to remove the exhaust to do so!

Please, any help would be GREATLY appreciated! Of course this was the last thing I had to do before the job was done, so I am pretty mental right now!

 

This sounds familiar to me. What I ended up doing, was just restart the line and I got lucky. It caught and has been in and working fine since.

I don't know the thread pitch or size. You should be able to take the old line and have the tool place use that to determine what tap would work.

To take the ebrake cables off you just need to remove the heat shield at the end of the tunnel, just before the gas tank. Once that is out you can remove the cable, but if you are not replacing it, all you have to do is loosen the cable under the center console, the heat shield can stay. Just push the wire out to get slack and take it off the caliper. The internal wire needs to slide and you can get enough slack without removing anything except the tensioner from the brake handle.

 

Well, I did actually manage to fix the threads today. Thanks for the input HRM! I just removed the bleeder screw and put it into the other hole where the brake line would go and ran it down using a socket so I could put a lot of downward pressure on it and it managed to fix the first few threads that were messed up. Now I just have to bleed the whole system. I just bought a Motive bleeder that I will be using for the first time so hopefully that will make the process a lot easier. I'm a little concerned that I won't be able to get all of the air out of the system now because the line was open for so long, mainly in the ABS module, but hopefully it will all work out. Really don't want to have to go to the dealer just to have them put the ABS system into their "bleed mode". Probably should bleed the clutch slave too and I have heard its a pain in the ***, so I hope it won't give me too much headache!

 

OK so, I have now bleed my brakes 3 times and I can't seem to get a good pedal feel with the Motive Bleeder. I'm pretty sure I have air in the lines that is not coming out from pressure bleeding alone. Thinking its in the ABS module or master cylinder. I did discover that if the front wheels are off the ground with the car running and in 1st gear the DSC engages and triggers the ABS pump on and off, which would make me believe I could possibly bleed the system in a similar manner to the dealer. My question though is do I then bleed with the system pressurized with the power bleeder or do I just crack open the bleeder screws in the proper sequence and hope the ABS pump will push out the air with the car running?

Really don't want to have to go to the dealer for a brake bleed so any help would be appreciated!

 

If you have a Harbor Freight close, do yourself a favor and buy one of these:

http://www.harborfreight.com/brake-b...kit-92474.html

This will force fluid through the lines and almost always gets all the air out.

 

Yeah, I do have a Harbor Freight near me, but how is that any better than pressure bleeding the system with the Motive power bleeder? I always thought the Motive bleeder was the way to go. I also didn't think either method worked well if there was air in the ABS module? Either way one is sucking the fluid out the other is pushing the fluid out so I see both units doing about the same thing. No?