Swapping calipers and bleeding brakes

[MrTerry]

I am about to begin the process of upgrading my brakes on my 2016 GT. I have the brembo fronts and a set of rears that I got as a set. I‘ve painted them so will swap out both fronts and rears.
My back only allows me to work on the car for short times. Planning on doing it in two steps. Rears first and later the fronts. Going to start with the backs as they are in need of replacing first.
After swapping out the rears entirely (new calipers, new brake lines) do I need to bleed the fronts as well or just the rears? This is my daily so can’t be out of service for long. But I do prefer working on the car myself.

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[tangguy]

have to bleed the entire system even if you're touching just one corner. I usually start from passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front and then driver's side. Use a Motive brake bleeder. Can do the entire process in one hour.

 

[EFI]

. Planning on doing it in two steps. Rears first and later the fronts.

Then you're going to have to bleed the brakes twice.

 

[JustSomeGuy]

You might wanna do it on a day you don’t need the car that much, like a weekend. I would replace all four calipers one day and then bleed the whole system the next day. It’s an easy process, shouldn’t take long.

That being said, fair warning, when replacing the lines on mine, both front and rear passenger side bolts that connect the hydraulic tube to the brake lines were stripped pretty bad from the factory. I brought it up on here and a few people said they had the exact same issue. Turns a five minute project into HOURS. An adjustable die, small file and a lot of patients to get mine sorted out…

Shouldn’t matter if you’re just doing calipers and not steel braided lines though.

 

[WItoTX]

My two cents after swapping to stainless lines, the Motive Bleeder doesn't apply enough pressure to get all the air out. If I were you, get your neighbor to do the old 1-2-Hold technique for bleeding.

I got out a lot of air that was trapped because the bleeder just couldn't hold enough pressure. Since you are only doing calipers, you might be fine, but like above, I had an issue where the rear passenger side brake line got over-torqued, deforming the threads on the hard brake line. I bought a 10x1.5 mm nut, and threaded it on probably 5 or 10 times, and that fixed the issue. It's a known issue that Ford had from the factory. They over-torqued that fitting.

 

[Dana Pants]

My two cents after swapping to stainless lines, the Motive Bleeder doesn't apply enough pressure to get all the air out. If I were you, get your neighbor to do the old 1-2-Hold technique for bleeding.

my motive cap goes directly to my air compressor regulated to ~15 psi. Because hand pumping pressure is harder than finding a friend.

 

[MrTerry]

have to bleed the entire system even if you're touching just one corner. I usually start from passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front and then driver's side. Use a Motive brake bleeder. Can do the entire process in one hour.

Thanks. I had a feeling that might be the case.

 

[MrTerry]

You might wanna do it on a day you don’t need the car that much, like a weekend. I would replace all four calipers one day and then bleed the whole system the next day. It’s an easy process, shouldn’t take long.

That being said, fair warning, when replacing the lines on mine, both front and rear passenger side bolts that connect the hydraulic tube to the brake lines were stripped pretty bad from the factory. I brought it up on here and a few people said they had the exact same issue. Turns a five minute project into HOURS. An adjustable die, small file and a lot of patients to get mine sorted out…

Shouldn’t matter if you’re just doing calipers and not steel braided lines though.

This worries me. I don’t have a die set.

 

[MrTerry]

My two cents after swapping to stainless lines, the Motive Bleeder doesn't apply enough pressure to get all the air out. If I were you, get your neighbor to do the old 1-2-Hold technique for bleeding.

I got out a lot of air that was trapped because the bleeder just couldn't hold enough pressure. Since you are only doing calipers, you might be fine, but like above, I had an issue where the rear passenger side brake line got over-torqued, deforming the threads on the hard brake line. I bought a 10x1.5 mm nut, and threaded it on probably 5 or 10 times, and that fixed the issue. It's a known issue that Ford had from the factory. They over-torqued that fitting.

so you also had a problem with the fitting As well. Shoot maybe I’ll give your remedy a shot and get a nut just in case. Thanks for the heads up and the size nut I could use.

 

[WItoTX]

so you also had a problem with the fitting As well. Shoot maybe I’ll give your remedy a shot and get a nut just in case. Thanks for the heads up and the size nut I could use.

You mean you don't have a M 10-1.5 just laying around?!

I bought he J&M braided lines, and the first one would not go on. J&M said about 5% of the cars have the issue. I was happy it was just 1 of 4 fittings. And glad I called, because the torque specs are shockingly high for a brake line. Like 30 ft lbs IIRC.

 

[JustSomeGuy]

You mean you don't have a M 10-1.5 just laying around?!

I bought he J&M braided lines, and the first one would not go on. J&M said about 5% of the cars have the issue. I was happy it was just 1 of 4 fittings. And glad I called, because the torque specs are shockingly high for a brake line. Like 30 ft lbs IIRC.

Use the German torque wrench, Dasgudentight

 

[Howitzer]

my motive cap goes directly to my air compressor regulated to ~15 psi. Because hand pumping pressure is harder than finding a friend.

Same - makes it super easy and simple.

 

[jacknifetoaswan]

my motive cap goes directly to my air compressor regulated to ~15 psi. Because hand pumping pressure is harder than finding a friend.

I never thought to do this. Totally going to set this up, as I need to flush my fluid. Any way to put a reservoir inline so you don't have to pull the cap to refill the master cylinder?

JR

 

[Dana Pants]

I never thought to do this. Totally going to set this up, as I need to flush my fluid. Any way to put a reservoir inline so you don't have to pull the cap to refill the master cylinder?

JR

i refill the reservoir for every corner. Further optimization seemed counterproductive.

 

[jacknifetoaswan]

i refill the reservoir for every corner. Further optimization seemed counterproductive.

HAHAHAHA! Sounds like something a process engineer would say!

JR

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