Pedal feel gone

J

James_G

Member
 Guildford, Surrey
I recently had the brake fluid changed on my car - a job I hate doing as I can't see it's necessary every 2 years and I'm quite capable of doing it myself. However to comply with warranty and get the little indicator to go out I handed it over to my local dealer at the same time as they did the MOT.

Got the car back, drove 1 mile home parked up as I had a plane to catch. Got back in it a week later and the pedal was really, really soft. Spoke to dealer, took it back and they've redone it, twice apparently.

Pedal feel now is better but still really soft whereas before the pedal was firm, modulation was easy etc. Ignoring for now that I will be on the phone to the dealer again, what could be causing this? Is it likely that a change in fluid spec would lead to different pedal characteristics. Or is it that there is some particular process to follow that the dealer hasn't done. A friend suggested that the DSC module needs to be energised during bleeding, but I thought that's only relevant if was changed, which clearly it wasn't.

This is brake bleeding right - it's just not that difficult surely?

Your thoughts?
 
Mine came back from the dealer the same, so took it to my indy to get it back to normal :headbang:

As it was at mate's rates, I had to stand there and hold the bottle attached to bleed nipple until the bubbles disappeared, and then give him a shout to come and do his bit :P

Although I shouldn't be surprised as this is the same dealer who told me it was in 'desperate' need of discs and pads (10,000 miles and 2 'Ring trips ago).
 
its defo air in the sysytem ...........
just needs bleeding properly ...... problem is most garages don't have the patence to do it right.
 
teamemmenracing said:
its defo air in the sysytem ...........
just needs bleeding properly ...... problem is most garages don't have the patence to do it right.
Click to expand...

I can sort of understand them not having the patience to do it right first time (well, I can't but you know what I mean) but on my returning it because it isn't good enough, well there's no excuse really.

Still, this is the dealer that fitted a non sport lower arm to my 330i Sport, so it's not massively surprising. I shall be buying some brake fluid and doing it myself then and I'll remove the CDV while I'm there.
 
As per the others it does sound like air in the system. To *complete* replace all fluid though you need to bleed them, replace with fluid, take it out for a spin and brake hard a couple of times activating the ABS to move the brake fluid in the ABS pump and then take it back for another bleed. If not swapping fluid to another brand i dont think you should bother with that step though.
 
Bit of a thread resurrect. Finally got around to re-bleeding the brakes today. Got the fluid from BMW for consistency, bled the furthest corner first, doing them in order with sombody pumping the brake and guess what, it's made absolutely no difference.

Now I admit that I didn't tap each caliper as I did it, mainly as I forgot, but otherwise, all should be good right? I still wonder if I should do this while "energising" the DSC module as per instructions in the TIS? How do I even do that I wonder?

Frustrating though for sure.
 
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