I recently tried to refurbish my front brake calipers. The rubber boots on the pistons were in terrible shape. They must have been original to the car and after 135,000 miles, they owed me nothing more.

Unfortunately I was knee deep in the drivers side caliper when I realized the replacement parts I ordered were wrong. I'm usually good about checking before starting work, but I missed it. I had to reassemble the caliper without any boots...they were shredded upon removal. I ordered refurbished calipers from RockAuto for $50/ea. (after core return) Figured that would be the easiest way to proceed.

So this past weekend I finally went back in there and replaced the calipers. Went smoothly, and easily. There was some brake fluid leaking a bit through at least one piston. I happened to have one problem. I could not bleed the passengers side brake. I literally left the bleeder open for 30 minutes. Nothing. The crazy thing is that the brake works, but I couldn't bleed it, so I took it to a shop.

They managed to bleed it and everything works well now...except that they noted that the brake fluid was coming out very slow in that one caliper.

No lights, or codes are present. The car doesn't know anything is wrong with the brake fluid delivery. The steering wheel remains straight when braking. I would literally not know anything is amiss...if I didn't know something was amiss.

Any recommendations on where to start? I don't have a garage, so this might be something I don't want to tackle, as I am concerned about brake fluid getting on surfaces it shouldn't get on.

Thanks for reading.

 

Replaced the rubber brake line. Had fluid coming out of the metal hose coming out of the engine bay, so I know it's clear from there.

New hose on, and I successfully attached it to the other end and I still have the same problem.

Either the caliper is bad, or that last little bit of metal tubing between the (new) rubber hose and the caliper is blocked.

When I crack that connection, from the hard pipe to the caliper, I get plenty of brake fluid. Unfortunately, I can't tell what direction it's coming from, the caliper or the line.

I pulled a vacuum at the caliper bleed valve but get nothing.

 

Ended up being a bad caliper.

I got it replaced by RockAuto and everything is good now.

Only issue is when I crack open the bleeder valve, the fluid prefers to bleed out the threads. No leak when the valve is closed, and I can get fluid through the valve, but also through the threads. It's not an either/or, it's always an "and". No matter how close to closed the valve is, its either bleeding through the valve and threads, or not at all. The threads on the bleeder valve is M10 x 1.00mm (extra fine).

 

Leaking around threads is normal. If it really bothers you, Teflon tape can help. Just don't get it on the bleed hole on the bleeder.

 

I think the OEM bleeders do have some kind of Teflon coating, now that you mention it.

 

How do you measure a bleed valve? After some hunting, I believe someone posted that its an M10x1.00x33mm, however the entire length of my bleeder valve is just under 30mm. From the hex stop to the inside end of the valve it's 16.75mm.

I'd like to buy a speed bleeder for the front calipers.

(threads for the front are indeed M10x1.00)