s15 bleeding wilwood brake issues

[shifty]

need some help guys

fitted my new wilwood kit today with 5.1 DOT brake fluid. Took the best part of 5hours and its still not complete because we cannot get the air out the system.

started by bleeding the calipers, one at a time starting with N/S rear, O/S rear, N/S front then O/S front....felt really firm but when we started the car, pedal hit the deck.

so, did a bit of reading and found its probably air in the ABS system...took her for a run, engaged the abs, re-bled following the above procedure and it still does the same thing.

Bit more reading and found you need to disconnect the battery to dis-engage the solenoid in the abs so did that, then re-bled in the above order...still no luck.

were running out of ideas, we have tried using a one man system and doing it the old fashioned way, crack off the nipple, pedal to the floor, do it up and then lift the pedal and it hasn't made a difference either way. The pedal is rock solid with the engine off but useless when turned on.

We have checked the calipers to see if there are any leaks and cannot find any, The system holds pressure fine with the engine off, when running, brakes work well, the pedal is just awfully spongey and doesn't really get any firmer when pumped...when the ABS kicked in,pedal goes firm then spongey when released.

Any ideas how to solve this without resorting to removing to the ABS....thats a last resort

 

[mattyb]

not being cheeky but have you got the callipers on the correct sides of the car. ie bleed nipples at the top of the calliper, i fitted a set of brakes to a manta once and couldn't get air out of system then realised i had callipers on wrong sides of car.

 

[mattyb]

plus iv bled mine with abs fine 2 or 3 times and had no problems so cant be abs causing problems. the ports in the abs module allow fluid to pass straight through until you lock up then they close and open to cadence brake.

 

[pegliobaglio]

I had this on mine when I fitted my evo brembo absolute pain in the arse!! And I had them fitted by dan@ dbpower who is a brake specialist lol we ended up having to bless them 3 times before it was at an acceptable level, first time as you say felt find until I drove off then it hit the deck had to pump the pedal a few times to get it to stop! Don't know exactly what he did but if your still stuck with this try contacting him he will be able to advise you on the best route good luck mate

 

[shifty]

might give Dan a ring Monday as we bought them off him, shame we didn't ask when we rang him earlier!!

pretty sure they can't be fitted up side down as they have 4 bleed nipples each, first we bled all 4 then, when we had no luck, I had a look on the net and apparently you only bleed the top 2. did that and it made no difference. I believe there made with 4 nipples so there not side specific so you can't mount them wrong

 

[shifty]

forgot to mention, tried bleeding them with the engine on to, no difference!

 

[pegliobaglio]

Yeah tried engine on too lol in the end was pumping the peddle for ages ad he somehow I sorted it so best to give him a call see how he did it as I was just pumping the peddle can't really help much...

 

[B9NKO]

You might need a new master cylinder???

 

[shifty]

Tried cracking the pipes off at the ABS yesterday...there was a very small amount of air there but it made virtually no difference.

After that we removed the ABS....pedal felt slightly firmer with the engine on but still not great.

Someone suggested it may be due to the fluid displacement occuring now that there are larger calipers on there. I'm going to see if i can get hold of a Z32 BMC and iv also bought a BMC stopper to see if we can alleviate some of the movement in the cylinder. Hopefully that will solve the issue. Will let you know how we get on!

 

[Fruitbooter]

What brakes are you running at the back? If its anything bigger than standard itl prob be your BMC being too small.

 

[shifty]

Standard ones for now, will up grade them in the near future so will have to get a larger BMC eventually.

 

[Fruitbooter]

Any more luck with this mate?

 

[shifty]

Stopper arrived earlier in the week so might try fitting it later today

Drove her to pod and back this weekend though and they performed well. Just lack pedal feel!

 

[Fruitbooter]

I bled my new brembos today along with the rears and it went okay tbh...battery was out on charge too (not sure if this helps)

Just gotta remember to keep the master cylinder topped up above half way really as it doesn't make the pedal go very hard when it goes low, even when theres some in there..

Also try tapping the calipers with a rubber mallet, this sometimes frees stuck air bubbles and sends them to the top and they get pushed out.