Bleeding brakes A3

marcsnoz · Jul 15, 2003

This weekend i set out to put all new disc's and pads all round on my 1.9Tdi A3.
I stupidly got the piston on one of the rear brakes to fall out allowing a lot of fluid to disappear and air to get into the system.

I've manged to get all the caliper back together and all the new disc's and pads on i then set about bleeding the system, but my brakes are still not working correctly.

i've heard that you have to have the ignition on. Is this correct?

can anyone help? instrutions would be nice

thanks
marc

Patrick · Jul 15, 2003

Oops. Yes I did this once many many years ago on a motorbike. It took a lot of bleeding!

I've just completed a similar exercise to you on my 2.7 S4 no probs. (I didn't cycle the ABS pump) and there is certainly nothing about this in the A4 Erwin workshop manual.

HHmm The extent of bleeding will depend on just how much fluid escaped. If it dumped the reservoir then you have a lot of bleeding to do.

It maybe worth considering buying one of the pressure bleed kits rather than wearing out your master cylinder.

Some advise on not pumping the pedal to the floor as the they believe you can ruin the master cylinder seals as the piston very rarely goes through the full stoke of the cylinder.

Can't really argue with this, but I've done it anyway with no problems. (However I was ignorant about that possible problem)

It maybe worth consulting the official Audi A3 Erwin manual at https://erwin.audi.de/ I would avoid the manual titled maintenance. This has very basic bleed info. Just the usual sequence of bleeding for the longest pipe first i.e. one of your rear callipers. - alternatively give your local Audi workshop foreman a call. For simple questions like that they are usually quite happy to advise.

marcsnoz · Jul 15, 2003

Thanks alot for the help Patrick.

i've actually bleed the system quite a bit. not sure if i should have the ignition on or not heard that this might be better because of the abs system.

tried ringing my local audi dealers very un helpful here. told me a pack of lies i feel. told me it wouold take 4hours to bleed the system.

Snozy

Patrick · Jul 15, 2003

4 hours - rubbish try another dealership. Or a specialist AMD, Quattro sports, Star Performance, Dynalyx etc.

marcsnoz · Jul 16, 2003

Hi fellas,

All sorted i actually put enough fluid through the system to get all the old stuff out.

What i had to do was bleed the master cyclinder and also bleed at the caliper's.

I also done it with the engine running some of the time and with the ingition on in order to keep the ABS valves open.

yeh they gave me some bullsh*t about it taking 4hrs to do there's no way it takes that long. they only charge £60 for a fluid change. like u say mo thats only a 1-2 hr job.

anyway all sorted and i'm back on the road!!

cheers for all your help guys

Snozy

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Bleeding brakes A3

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