Issues with bleeding brakes

Nissan11

Nissan11

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2005
Location
Marston, NC
I've got an 02 crew cab frontier. I was changing the front pads (rear brakes are drum) last night when I blew a seal on the caliper. I took the caliper off the truck last night and got a new one this AM.
I installed the caliper and new pads and bled the brakes from all 4 wheels. After getting a steady stream of fluid from all wheels I started the truck and discovered I had no pressure at all.
I bled all 4 brakes again but never saw a single bubble. I drove the truck around in the yard but it's definitely not safe to be on the road.
Why don't I have pressure? There has to be air in the system somewhere that I can't get out. Any ideas? Can I bleed the ABS box somehow?
 
i did the same thing on my hardbody and wasnt acheiving good pressure so i had a friend pump the brakes the hold the pedal to the floor, then after no bubbles and tightend the bleed srews and now i have plenty pressure. not sure if youve already tried that but...
 
you got a steady stream, did you wait for the stream to stop before closing bleeder? or close while stream was still flowing? ( the correct answer is midstream ) one pump per stream letting.

unless you let the master cyl run dry, there should be no reason your ABS module should be effected.

if the Master DID go dry ( empty ) while the caliper was off/blown out, you'll probably have to bled it ( the master cyl), then work your way down the system. ( this should be a lot of fun ) to the ABS ( both sides ) and then each respective wheel.

There is the possibility that you had crud/corrosion in the Master Ccyl, and when pushing to the floor the crud in the MC fubared the seals ( had this happen a few times ) as the seal is now traveling into un worn areas where sediment and trash collect in the MC body. How nasty was the fluid before you started ?

Some vehicles do require a scan tool to bleed the ABS module, no idea if Nissan is one of them. some can be done manually, but it's a PITA

I'd offer to help, but you're 2hrs away
 
In my dealings with cars with ABS is you don't bleed them like the old cars with the pump and hold method, It seems to just push the air around the ABS module.

Put the truck on jack stands, open the bleeder screws at all 4 and go grab a couple beers and make sure the reservoir doesn't run dry. Let them seep for 30min to an hour. Come back and tighten them up. Your pedal will be back with no air in the system. Done it this way for years and it has worked every time.

( I put a hose into a clean bottle so you're not running brake fluid all over the ground)
 
Best advice I can give you, go buy a Mity-Vac, or cheapo equivalent at HF. These things bleed brakes like no tomorrow. I've done several cars after people manually bled them and always pull out air they didn't get.. or in a couple of my cars I've done the same after manually bleeding them with two people first. Biggest advantage I like is being able to do it by yourself. It also saves the fluid into a nice little container that you can pour right back into the master cylinder reservoir.
 
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