Brake bleeding tips needed - still have a spongy pedal

[joe.smith]

WOW! 96 ounces is a LOT of fluid. I’ve flushed brake fluid on several cars with a power bleeder, and it’s never taken more than 1-2 pints.

Why, yes, yes it is. An additional complication was that I was waiting for the fluid to come through 'clear,' but my I noticed that my tubing had a slight tint to it. It made it harder to tell when that was happening. Also, I've read that it's possible to get some air trapped in the ABS solenoid that would result in a visit to the Service Center to flush out. I wanted to be SURE I got all the air out. Normally, it probably wouldn't take THAT much fluid.

 

[Sophias_dad]

Gotta say I'm not super impressed with my pressure bleeder(speedibleed), mainly due to the seal on the master. It seems its always leaking(or does by the time I'm done, anyway!) and I'm not a big fan of brake fluid pouring down all around and below my brake reservoir. Admittedly I might be putting more pressure in than necessary to get fluid to flow.

 

[joe.smith]

Gotta say I'm not super impressed with my pressure bleeder(speedibleed), mainly due to the seal on the master. It seems its always leaking(or does by the time I'm done, anyway!) and I'm not a big fan of brake fluid pouring down all around and below my brake reservoir. Admittedly I might be putting more pressure in than necessary to get fluid to flow.

What car do you have? You've got to get an adapter specific to your vehicle. When I first did it, I pressurized the system and waited 5-10 minutes before doing anything. If the pressure dropped, I knew I had a leak somewhere. It ended up being at my adapter to the master cylinder. I kept fussing with it, to the point where I didn't think it was possible to have a good seal. I was amazed at how tight I had to secure it. Plus, the adapter came with a couple of rubber (?) bushings of different thicknesses. I had to make sure I was using the right one(s).

Here's what I used for my 2020 Model S LR: Motive Adapter for Teslas

 

[stevehifi]

Interesting. Do you think it was doing a full bleed after installing the rears that did it?

Actually i didn’t do any bleeding after the rear kit install. Maybe it’s the more aggressive pads giving more bite that helped out, not sure.

 

[Aggmeister2010]

Unless the S is unusual, brake circuits are usually diagonally paired on modern automobiles. Having the rear unbled on both diagonals means you'll have awful brake behavior.

Gotcha. I didn’t touch the rears, I only replaced the fronts, but if I’m understanding correctly it’s possible for air to get into the rear lines when just working on the fronts.

So, I definitely need to bleed all four corners then and hope that resolves my issue.

Tbh, my biggest concern is that going from the moderately sized Brembo calipers to the bigger 6 pot AP Racing calipers means the iBooster can’t keep up

 

[Sophias_dad]

What car do you have? You've got to get an adapter specific to your vehicle. When I first did it, I pressurized the system and waited 5-10 minutes before doing anything. If the pressure dropped, I knew I had a leak somewhere. It ended up being at my adapter to the master cylinder. I kept fussing with it, to the point where I didn't think it was possible to have a good seal. I was amazed at how tight I had to secure it. Plus, the adapter came with a couple of rubber (?) bushings of different thicknesses. I had to make sure I was using the right one(s).

Here's what I used for my 2020 Model S LR: Motive Adapter for Teslas

I have a model 3, and yes I have the adapter for my vehicle. I'm not sure if the 3 was a leaky one or not, since I've used the speedibleeder on four different cars across three different adapters(Honda/Saab/Tesla)