Hi I'm sixteen and just got a 2003 Honda Accord EX 2dr. 5sp and for my first mod i want to get a new brake system. I have done some research and I keep hearing all these things about bleeding your brakes. If i knew how to bleed brakes then i could do the install, but i dont know how to bleed brakes. I could just get a proffessional to do it, but from what ive heard this is a pretty easy mod so I'd like to save my money and do it myself. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

well bleeding the brakes isnt really a mod and isnt very necessary unless you have somehow gotten air in the lines. plus a 2003 is a relatively new car so theres really no need to bleed them. the only reason you would need to bleed your brakes is if you were doing a fluid flush, changing some aspect of your braking that involves disconnecting you fitting from the caliper or wheel cylinder in the case of drums.

the way i usually bleed though, which has been covered numerous times is start by jacking up all four corners of the car and taking the wheels off. the start from the furthest brake away from your master cylinder, then work you way closer. I.e. right rear, left rear, right front, then left front.

you have someone press the brakes. while you open and close the bleeder. what you do is you have them push the brake while you crack open the bleeder valve which is a little nipple on your caliper or on the wheel cylinder (which is on the backside of the drum), let the pedal go to the floor, close the bleeder valve, and have them slowly let the pedal back up. then repeat that until the pedal pressure is pretty firm. i usually do this with the car on. i have seen some people do it with the car off.

obtw make sure you have some sort of tube connected the the bleeder for the fluid to drain into something. i used a little air tube from an aquarium pump. and a beer bottle.

also be sure to keep an eye on the fluid level in the reservoir, make sure it doesn't go below the line

 

Thanks a lot, I guess if you dont need to bleed the brakes to put in a new big brake system, I won't. thanks so much, anyways. I'm sure I will need to do it sometime in the future.

 

if you disconnect your brake line, and you will have to in order to install a new system, you will get air in the lines, and then you will need to bleed the brakes. i would invest in speed bleeders if you can find them for our cars.

 

Allright. I will get my buddy to help me, I guess. Thanks for the info. Maybe I should look into a pro doing this....

 

its easy, u dont need a pro to do it, like the guy said, have someone pump the brakes til theres pressure, turn the nipple counterclockwise w/ 10mm wrench to let air/fluid out, when the peddle hits the floor have the guy tell u, turn nipple clockwise to close it, do it again, then move to next wheel, same thing, i go around the car twice but that prolly isnt necessary, easy to do and takes 10 min at the most, it doesnt matter what order you go in and make sure ur keeping the brake fluid resevoir filled

 

i know you didnt pay for it, but you'll appreciate the car more if you atleast do the work yourself.

 

Yeah we bought it from a guy for 18,000 dollars and I paid 8,000 for it.

 

why are you changing your braking system out?

your stock brakes are more than capable of doing what you probably need. Even if you plan on tracking your car, only good pads and high temp fluid is needed.

sounds like you want the "stunna" look...which isn't really what honda-TECH is all about, but to each his own i guess.

and the only time bleeding your brakes is neccessary is when you are flushing old fluid or have air in the lines. You are going to need jackstands, a jack, an 8mm or 10mm wrench i forget, some plastic fishtank tubing, and brake fluid.

sounds like you should do more "research" before you start installing useless crap on your car.

-chris

 

Head to http://www.helminc.com, buy the service and repair manual for your car and follow these steps:

Read it,
Learn it,
Do it!

This book will save you tons of money and is the same manual that honda service techs use. Dont waste money on that Haynes crap, buy the real deal. At least then you will stop asking questions like:

"need a pinup of soandso part"
"How hard is it to replace (insert part) and do blank to it"
"What are the blankblank settings/stats/psi/etc/etc of soandso part"

etc etc etc..

The book answers all your questions and then some. Hell if someone took your car apart you could put it back together with that book.

And the proper sequence to bleed the brakes according to the helms manual is: lf, rf, rr, lr