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DIY: SS Brake Lines and Fluid Flush

sticksabuser

Ready to race!
in 4 pics
 

Squashdaddy

Go Kart Champion
I understand that our clutch uses the brake fluid reservoir. Should we flush the clutch line at the clutch bleeder also? And if so, where in the order would it fall?
 

timneedscoffee10

Go Kart Champion
I bleed my clutch master too. The reservoir has a separate chamber in the rear, so make sure have it nice and full so that new fluid is spilling to that side (or use a power blended and don't worry about it).

I bleed the clutch line first, then follow the sequence for the brakes. You want to do closest to the reservoir first, and furthest last.


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Squashdaddy

Go Kart Champion
I have a power bleeder that I'll be using. Not sure what it mean about a separate chamber in the rear. So, open the clutch bleeder nipple and wait for clean fluid to come throgh, then LF RF LR RR, correct? Generally I've heard to always start farthest away from the master cylinder but our cars are opposite? Has anyone actually confirmed this with a mechanic or tech?
 

timneedscoffee10

Go Kart Champion
Inside the brake fluid reservoir there's a small wall separating the front from the back. The back chamber goes to the clutch line. At least that's how I remember it being explained to me :). Not a concern with the power bleeder.

The bleed sequence I use came from another thread, which was linked in my OP. I generally do two passes bleeding everything, though, so I don't generally think the sequence makes too much difference then. The only important part is to make sure you've actually flushed all the old stuff out, and even out of sequence, the second pass will take care of it.


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timneedscoffee10

Go Kart Champion
I have a power bleeder that I'll be using. Not sure what it mean about a separate chamber in the rear. So, open the clutch bleeder nipple and wait for clean fluid to come throgh, then LF RF LR RR, correct? Generally I've heard to always start farthest away from the master cylinder but our cars are opposite? Has anyone actually confirmed this with a mechanic or tech?



Yeah - this thread is a very long discussion about how and why our cars are bled backwards:

Brake bleeding questions:
http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33302


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JT641

Banned
Fluid flush
Now that your new lines are installed, your brake lines are full of air. Time to bleed. The process is documented plenty - so I won't go into it too much here. I used ATE Super Blue, which makes it very very simple to tell when your line is fully flushed through.

The steps I followed are:

  1. Unhook the brake fluid level sensor from the brake reservoir cap
  2. Remove the brake reservoir cap (have some paper towels handy, it'll drop fluid when you remove it)
  3. Connect your pressure bleeder to the reservoir
  4. Pressure test your system to make sure you have a tight seal. I brought mine up to 5psi and heard a whistle from the reservoir... tightened up the pressure-bleeder cap, and went to 10psi and it held steady)
  5. Fill your pressure bleeder with your new brake fluid (you can do this 1L at a time... I used about 1.25L for the full flush)
  6. Bring the bleeder up to 10PSI
  7. Bleed the clutch line until you see clean, new fluid coming through. The clutch bleeder nipple is 9mm, and is immediately infront of your shifter assembly on the transmission, attached to a small black plastic assembly)
  8. Bleed each brake caliper by opening the 11mm bleed nipple. You'll identify the nipple by the black rubber dust cap on it. In order, do: LF, RF, LR, RR
  9. I had plenty of fluid still in my bleeder, so I repeated clutch, LF, RF, LR, RR again for good measure

Note: if you don't have a pressure bleeder, just do a quick search... there's plenty of info on bleeding the brakes with a friend to pump the pedal for you.

Edit: Detailed brake bleeding info in post #11 here http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33302

Finishing up
Now that the lines are installed and bled, it's time to clean up and put things back together.

Release the pressure from the bleeder by slowly loosening the pump from the bleeder-reservoir (not the car's brake-fluid reservoir). You'll hear the air hiss out. Do this slowly to avoid overspray.

Disconnect your pressure bleeder from the fill-reservoir, and use a turkey baster to remove the excess fluid until it's filled only to the MAX line. Reinstall the cap and reattach the fluid level sensor.

Reinstall your intake.

I sprayed down each wheel well with Simple Green and washed it out using a large brush (same one I use for cleaning the engine bay) to clean up the spilled brake fluid. I also hosed out the engine bay, and give it a quick rinse with some Engine Bright Foamy to remove spilled brake fluid

When putting my wheels back on, I also went ahead and rotated them - since I was at a 10K interval anyway.

Get the car back on the ground and go for a test drive! Get home safe and have a beer.

I read in another thread it's RR LR RF LF Just did my brakes and bled them in this order but the pedal is still soft goes almost to the floor Which is correct :confused:
 

rtnlsltn

Passed Driver's Ed
Side note to everyone: handheld vacuum bleaders don't work. At least, mine didn't work.

I typically use a handheld vacuum bleeder, which works great on... everything else I've worked on (Honda/Toyota), but it does not work on these. You'll pull the fluid out but get a lot of air. VW's must be valved differently. In a Honda, if you pump the brakes with the reservoir cap off, you'll spout fluid everywhere. In these, I pumped the brakes safely with the cap off.

When I had someone pump the brakes using the ol' "helper method", everything went per normal. Just thought I'd note this, in the event someone reads through to page 5. Thankfully I saved the clean fluid to re-use, as I may have went through the liter thinking it was normal to flush through a lot of air.
 
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