[Seatman]

My dad drives a Renault Megane Scenicukerofl and I, being related, am obliged to assist in the repair of said car. Well he came back on Friday night from a 500 mile trip with the last 30 miles or so having to drive slow and use the hand brake because a brake pipe had broken, the brake fluid obviously disappeared and by the time I got to it there was nothing left in the system. I repaired the pipe in about 5-10 mins but I spent about 2 hours, using a pressure bleeding kit, trying to bleed the brakes. The bottom line is there are still no brakes and I've no idea why so far. I tried every possible sequence I could think of and checked and double checked for any extra bleed nipples around the master cylinder but can't find anything. Does anyone have any suggestions? (Not including cans of petrol, matches or cliffs)

 

[Keithuk]

Well if one pipe brakes splits/cracks/leaks you should still have two more braked wheels thats why its a tandom master cylinder just in case something like this happens. It sounds like he has a fault on the master cylinder seals to loose all the pedal. Obviously we are talking sorry texting about this on the web which isn't ideal.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Another thing to try - since it's all new fluid and you spent 2 hours trying to get all the air out, is that there is a pocket trapped in the master cylinder or somewhere strange. The bleeder on the brake calipers are on the top to let any air out so that shouldn't happen but maybe there's something strange about it.

Try a recirculating purge. The advantage over using a pressure bleeder is that it moves the pedal all the way. It's not great for old master cylinder seals to be pushed far in but it's better than having no brakes. Connect a clean hose from each brake bleeder back to the master cylinder. Then slowly pump the pedal. It recirculates the clean new fluid. The danger is that there's still some junk in the lines so be careful and use a filter. This works much better on the clutch because the fluid is normally cleaner and the line is very short but it's worth a try.

Another possibility is that some air in the ABS pump is slowly causing no brake pedal. This shouldn't happen though, I'm just throwing out a guess.

Also, post moved to other vehicles, it's not really off topic.

 

[Keithuk]

Connect a clean hose from each brake bleeder back to the master cylinder. Then slowly pump the pedal. It recirculates the clean new fluid.

Not a good idea chitty brake fluid retains minute air bubbles while you are bleeding the air out it should stand for at least 24 hours before reusing.

 

[Seatman]

Well I ended up taking the car for a spin seeing as I live out in the sticks and pumped the pedal stupid. After that I rebled and now there is a pedal. I really don't like french cars. Cheers for the replies.

 

[Keithuk]

Sorry I forgot to mension different ABS systems have different brake bleeding procedures.

 

[Seatman]

No worries, I'm just glad to see the back of it for now lol. I tried bleeding that thing every way I could think of.