DIY: How to Bleed Your Brake Fluid Using Motive Power Bleeder 0117 (AK370Z)
 

I have been meaning to post this DIY for few weeks now. I did this couple weeks ago. Those of you who go to track regularly, I'm sure you've done this many times. I still decided to post this perhaps it'll help someone or answer a question they might have about power bleeding. This was my very first time using Motive Power Bleeder.

It's recommended that you change your brake fluid every 2 years or 24 months, if you drive your car on the road (no track). If you drive on the track, the interval becomes much quicker (unless you're using Castrol SRF which is 18 months). You should bleed your brake before doing HPDE at the track. Brake fluid has a tendency to absorb moisture/water over time. So the longer you wait, the more water you'll have in your brake fluid(which is not good). I was actually surprised how easy it was to do this and from this point on, I'll change it every year (unless I'm attending a lot of HPDE ;) :driving: )

If you have any question or suggestion or if you see I have posted wrong info, PLEASE post your input. I'm ALWAYS open for suggestion:

I have posted the video in Post 2. Don't forget to check it out as some steps are easier to see then follow via text.

What you'll Need:

1. 0117 Black Label Ford / Import 3-Tab Power Bleeder
Link: 0117 Black Label Ford / Import 3-Tab Power Bleeder

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I went with the black label because of the quality. Bleeder reservoir cap is made from custom machined aluminum. Comes with 6 feet of high grade poly urethane tubing. I think it's def worth paying extra $10-$12 from the regular plastic cap and shorter flimsy piping. Just my :twocents: It has a range of 5-30 PSI which should be more than enough for your Z.

PS: Please ignore the dirt here and there. This bleeder floated in Sandy water :(. But I have thoroughly cleaned it with denatured alcohol. I also used synthetic grease to grease up the pump and even ran some fresh out of bottle clean dot 3 before I used Motul through it for the Z :).



2. Longacre Brake Bottle Bleeder
Link: Longacre Racing - Online Catalog: Electronic Wheel Scales, Gauges, Pyrometers, Chassis Setup and More!

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I must give credit to Mike Bonnani (used to own Double Down Motorsports). I remember him using this for his bleed. What makes this better than other is because we have two bleeder nipples on our caliper. So you can hook both pipes up and not have to worry about taking off anything until WHOLE caliper is done. It was very snug fit and perfect for the job :tup:



3. Motul RBF600 Racing Brake Fluid 1/2 Liter (500 ml)
Link: Motul RBF600 Racing Brake Fluid 1/2 Liter 8069HC : Amazon.com : Automotive

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I initially went with ATE blue but after hearing some reviews about staining the brake lines and people having problem differentiating the orange ATE during next bleed (after a year) etc, I went with Motul. These fluids held up amazing during a HDPE I attended couple weeks ago. Also, if your car is under warranty, it's probably better to have Motul than the ATE blue because your service adviser may give you trouble(stink eye :icon08:) if there's any brake related issue that need to be fixed under warranty. With Motul, he probably won't be able to tell :). Also, let not forget, it's Motul! I think right after SRF, is it safe to say it's Motul that is most popular among everyday track guys? (non professional racing)



4. Turkey baster or surgical bulb syringe (Dover) or 60 cc piston syringe.
Link: Covidien (fka Kendall) Dover - Bulb Irrigation Syringe
Bulb Syringe | 60cc Irrigation Syringes BUY at VitalityMedical.com! 67000, 67000, 68000, 68000

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These are just to suck out old fluid from the reservoir. I personally like the 60 cc syringe but turkey baster is fine too.



5. 10 mm wrench to loosen the bleed bolt and any other tools (jack, breaker bar etc) to remove the wheels.

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STEP 1:
Locate brake/clutch fluid reservoir area. They are located on the Left side of the vehicle next to windshield (driver side).
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STEP 2:
Find the brake fluid reservoir.
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STEP 3:
Remove the thin filter inside the brake fluid reservoir and put it aside. Now use the Turkey baster to suck out as much old dirty fluid as you can. Notice my fluid is pretty clean. I used to suck out old fluid from reservoir every 6 months with the 60 cc syringe and replace with Nissan's dot 3 from dealer. I did what I could to keep things clean ;)

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STEP 4:
Open one of the Motul RBF 600 bottle and pour some fresh fluid in the reservoir ( to the max line).



STEP 5:
Now put the Motive Power Bleeder Cap on the brake reservoir. If you have the black label, the fit is VERY snug. The cap will not connect to your reservoir if you push and twist at the same time. Follow these instructions from Motive Website:
Note: this cap can be difficult to connect to the reservoir, it is designed for a tight seal, attaching the cap is a three step process
1) Align tabs with cutouts on reservoir
2) Push cap down until it seats. You may need to rock it to have it seat.
3) Twist to seal.

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STEP 6: (watch video)
Close the Motive Bleeder Container (no fluid inside yet) and start pumping the bottle. You're doing this to check for leaks. Pump until the psi gauge show at least 10 psi. If no leak, release the pressure and open the container.

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STEP 7: (video)
Pour 2 bottles of Motul RBF 600 synthetic brake fluid. I poured 2.5 bottles in the video but I had about .5 bottle left in the container at the end.



STEP 8: (video)
Close the Motive Bleeder tight and start pumping. Bring the psi of the container up to 15 psi. I know some of you do it at lower psi but I remember reading somewhere we need at least 13 psi to open abs valve? Anyhow, 15 psi worked great for me. My results were superb so I'm sticking with it.



STEP 9:
Remove the right rear wheel (passenger rear wheel). This is the furthest caliper from the master cylinder/brake reservoir. I'm not sure if this furthest-first, closest-last method is still effective but I'll do it anyway. Keep thing simple. Find both brake bleeder nipples on the caliper.

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Step 10
Attach the Longacre brake bleeder bottle piping to each caliper bleeder nipples. Remove the rubber cover first. It should look like this:

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Outer
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It should look like this



STEP 11: (video)
Go check real quick to see if you're still at 15 psi in the bleeder. If not, bring it up to 15. It shouldn't go down much. Open the Longacre bottle lid(white) slightly so that air can pass (also loosen the black valve on the bottle bleeder pipe above the bottle lid). Now slowly open up OUTER brake caliper bleeder first. I followed Chris's advice. Let the bubbles, metal fragments, dirty old brake fluid etc go into the bottle. I think I saw most crap from this rear right bleeder nipples. Once you see that old fluid is starting to change color and turning into Motul deep golden color, tighten/close the bleeder bolt.

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STEP 12:
Now open the inner bleeder nipple on the same caliper and let the dirty fluid go to the Longacre bottle. Once you can see that Motul color fresh fluid started to come in (no bubbles visible), close the bleeder bolt. Detach the Longacre bleeder bottle pipes from both bleed nipples and put the rubber cover on them. You're done with this wheel. Put the wheel back on.



STEP 13
Check and make sure you're still maintaining 15 psi. I checked after each bleed and made sure my psi didn't drop below 15. Now repeat step 9 thru 13 for rear left caliper, then front right caliper(passenger) and finally front left caliper (driver).

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Once all 4 caliper's are done, slowly release the pressure from the Motive bleeder. Carefully open the reservoir cap and make sure brake fluid doesn't drip into paint. It's very acidic and will eat through clear coat. Now, pour some Motul fluid into the reservoir and fill it to the appropriate fill line (between min and max). If your caliper saw a drop or two of brake fluid, use all purpose cleaner(Adams my favorite) to remove it.

TIP: if you have some left over motul, suck out the clutch reservoir and pour some fresh Motul in there ;) instead of throwing away bc you rather NOT use opened brake fluid 6-12 months from now.

That's it! you've just bleed your brake fluid. It's so easy and didn't even take me 2 hours. I did go to a HPDE in freezing 29 degrees and brakes held up fine. So I'm not sure how the result would have been if it was 80 degrees out but I think it would be similar. Pedal feel was great. very linear and predictable feel and will throw your passenger into dash if slammed hard (well thanks to Stoptech pads and rotors which I'm working on the DIY ;) ) I am glad I finally did it. It's been almost 4 year with my old brake fluid! Hope you enjoy the video as well where I can show you in more detail.



Thank you :)

Video
 

Maintenance
 

Motive recommends cleaning the Power Bleeder with denatured alcohol. I went to Walmart and bought this. Pretty cheap about $6.

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Cleaned them right after the bleed. One of my friend accidentally left ATE Blue in the container and lines. Let just say his power bleeder lines are blue now

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From Motive's website:

Love the tighties whities as a rag :roflpuke2:

Awesome Write up!! Very cool :tup:

:icon23: haha.. seriously, they were some OLD ones that I found in my "rag drawer". I'm a "boxer" kinda guy btw

well at least they are nice and bright white

I have been looking to purchase this set up to bleed brakes, what about the clutch, is there an adapter/cap for that????

From what I've read, I don't think you want to use a power bleeder on the clutch. Just pump the pedal and keep filling the reservoir.

90% of the cars I have owned were either cable or linkage operated, and the ones I did have to bleed had a sizable reservoir and no CSC just a cylinder.
The Z seems like a 3 man operation, I was thinking you could pressurize it enough to keep it filled while you pumped the pedal and open and closed the bleed. But I also understand the sensitivity of the CSC. Just thought I would ask before I screw the pooch.

What's the purpose of pumping up the Motive canister prior to filling it with brake fluid?

When you screw on the canisters cap, you want to pressurize the system to make sure there are no leaks. If there are leaks you will here them. If your cap had a leak and there was fluid already in the Motive Canister it could make a mess taking the cap off to fix the leak depending on how you do it.

Also: I just had my calipers ceramic coated so I have rebuilt calipers on all for wheels. By testing the pressure (at 15psi) you will know if there are leaks. You can track those leaks down and fix them until the pressure gauge stays steady and no longer drops.

Awesome DIY AK once the wheels were off it took me 20mins to do the job. Thanks!


:tiphat:

Just ordered my bleeder kit! Thanks AK for showing exactly how to do this and giving me the courage to do this myself!!

How long would it take to exchange the brake fluid with just new brake fluid and the turkey baster? Haha I am trying to be lazy. It looks really easy, nice write up with links and photos.

I just did this the other week during front rotor and pad replacement. The only thing I'll add here that I didn't see is that the bleeder valves are supposed to be torqued to 70 ft-lbs in-lbs.

Also, I borrowed a friend's power bleeder and the hose attached to the main reservoir busted on me when I was just about to start the last corner. It sprayed me in the face (that's what she said) and got on my fender paint as well - I had to scramble to get a towel and some cleaner to wipe it off quickly. Just a friendly reminder to check the condition of your equipment :tiphat:

That should take you about 90 seconds. But you still have dirty fluid in all the brake lines which will eventually mix with the fresh fluid in the reservoir. This may be an acceptable practice to extend the life of the fluid (i.e. AK mentioned he does this every 6 months and got 4 years out of his fluid instead of just 2), but it is not an appropriate method if you are in need of a full brake flush.

Damn, those are tight bleeder valves. Did you mean 70 in-lbs?

Yes.

An option is to install speed bleeders. Some good & bad issues though!

A quick conversion gives 7.9 N*m approx = 70 inch*pounds or 5.8 foot pounds.

I researched these briefly a few weeks ago. Looked at Russell Speed Bleeders but I couldn't find a part number for the Z.

Yes it is 70 inch pounds per the manual (the wrench icon is black indicating inch-pounds not white for foot-pounds).

At 70 foot-pounds you would probably snap the bleeders right off (12x over spec).

thank you for the clarification... editing post now

I guess it's lucky I didn't have a socket small enough to fit the bleeder valves that fits my torque wrench :shakes head:

Hey JARBlue...what would you think if this cheapo process was done, say every couple of months (I mean it's pretty darn easy) instead of AK's 6 month rotation? By having more frequency do you think I'd EVER have to totally bleed the brake lines???

Also, my ride is a 2010 with 19K miles...do you think I'm due for this??

Thx in advance.

Quarterly is probably marginally better than biannually, but I'm not an expert by any means. With the right tools, bleeding the brakes in the proper manner is very easy as well. No, I would never consider that a permanent solution. The dirty brake fluid that is not siphoned out just becomes dirtier and dirtier over time making your efforts less and less effective over time.

I believe Nissan recommends 2 years or 30K miles, whichever comes first, for brake fluid change interval. If it's never been done before, it sounds like you're due.

It's not very effective, since the brake fluid doesn't really circulate as such. The crummy contaminated fluid hangs out in the end of the brake lines near the caliper and there is no way you are getting that stuff out without bleeding proper, whether it be manually or with a power bleeder.

OK, got it. Thx JARBlue and ChrisSlicks.

I'm going to piggy-back off AK's tutorial for the base brakes. The only contribution I have is that the front bleeder screws are 10mm and the rears are 5/16 (8mm). Used Valvoline Synthetic. Thanks AK for your write-up.

Is your car NON AKEBONO (non sports pack)? because for sports pack Akebono, it's 10mm for front and rear bleeder bolts.

Although his phrasing might be a little confusing, I'm pretty sure he is indeed referring to the base brakes (i.e. not sports pack). I can confirm that the bleeder valve for the Akebono brakes (i.e. sports pack) is 10mm both front and back :tup:

Btw... can I say something about the 8 month response delay? :p :icon17: :tup:

yah and dont forget you got 2 valves per caliper on the akebono's

Just wanted to say thanks for the DIY. I ordered my stuff the other night and can't wait to flush my brakes myself.

Thanks for this awesome DIY. I bled my brakes yesterday and I thinkeverything went smoothly. Prior to bleeding, I installed new rotors and pads. After bleeding the brakes, I was able to push the brake pedal all the way to the ground before it started to feel firm. It's firm now and the car stops great.

My question is, would pumping the brakes before I started bleeding them have resulted in better pedal feel? In other words, did that initial pump of the brake pedal that went to the floor cause air to be introduced into the system? Should I re-bleed my brakes?

It shouldn't introduce air unless you emptied the reservoir. Make sure it is full.

HI people i have a question... im going to work on my brakes and i want to change the fluid.... my question is how much bottles of motul rbf600 i need to made the compete fluid change?

I read in a thread that just 1 bottle but i think is more than 1 bottle... i want to make sure haha!

Thanks!

I use two bottles. It's actually more like 1.5 bottles. But the fluid doesn't have a shelf life after the seal is broken, so I go ahead and use the entirety of both bottles :twocents:

Perfect bro! Thanks a lot :) thats what i was thinking about :tup:

Hey guys, I need to do this and i have a quick question. The bubbles in the lines is air being taken out? so stop when there is just fresh fluid and no bubbles coming out right? I am worried about doing this and then pushing the brakes and not stopping because there is air left in the lines.

Correct. When bleeding each wheel, once it's obvious that the fresh fluid has reached the caliper and there's no evidence of bubbles (air) in the fluid, you should be good to go. Tighten down the bleeder valve(s) … but don't over-tightened … and fill up the master cylinder reservoir to the max level. Test the brakes … they should be firm. If there is air in the line(s), it will be obvious. The brakes will feel soft and spongy. Trust this helps.

Thanks man!

yah, but make sure u are not introducing new bubbles due to a leaking tube to the caliper nipple. u might mistaken it as old fluid.

my little kid helps me monitor the reservoir level while i bleed from the calipers. i use a valved replenish bottle.