I might need to replace my brake MC. Some people bench bleed the MC before installing and others say it's not needed. I don't see any mention of it in the Helms. Sometimes, I feel like the Helms left out some minor details...for example, they don't say not to press the brake pedal all the way down to the floor when bleeding brakes. I just wanted to check with people that have real world experience with replacing one of these suckas if they bench bled it or not. TIA.

 

Are Tech questions not popular in the ITR forum anymore?

 

i destroyed a MC for the accord and when i replaced it, i never bench bled it so take that for what its worth...i have since put 50k miles on the car with no problems......HTH

 

I always bench bleed 'em first. Push the piston in slowly (this pevents internal seal damage). Then when you bleed the system (LF,RF,RR,LR) it IS ok to push the pedal to the floor again, slowly! If you don't fully extend the masters piston, how can one push out all the air? I've been doing it this way for countless jobs and never had it comeback BTW Get the factory manual from your local dealer!

 

You can accomplish the same thing by bleeding on the car, but bench-bleeding is much faster and wastes less fluid. You can also be more certain that you've gotten the air out.