How to Bleed Brakes

Do you want to keep your brakes healthy for longer? Keeping your brakes in tip top shape is not just good for saving you money on maintenance in the long-term – Charlotte drivers will also keep themselves safe by regularly bleeding their brake lines. If you want to know how to bleed brake lines, Hendrick Cadillac Monroe will inform you on this essential part of car maintenance. Of course, if you review the steps for how to bleed brakes and determine you don’t want to bleed your brake lines by yourself, you can always schedule service with one of our experts.

How To Bleed Brakes By Yourself

If you want to know how to bleed brakes by yourself, you’ll be happy to know that the process can be completed right from your own Ballantyne-area garage. Here’s how you do it!

1. Check your owner’s manual and see what kind of brake fluid you need. You’ll need two or three cans of brake fluid, just to be safe. 
2. Your owner’s manual will also clue you in on the order in which to bleed brakes on your vehicle, because it won’t work the right way if you don’t do it in the right sequence. (Different makes/models may follow a slightly different pattern, though the end result is the same.)
3. Park your vehicle on level ground. Use four jack stands to put your car up and take the wheels off.
4. Gently loosen the caliper bleeding screw at each wheel but do not remove it. Tighten them back up again; if they don’t want to tighten back up, use penetrating oil and wait 30 minutes. If the screws break, it’s time to give the service experts at Hendrick Cadillac Monroe a call.
5. Open the hood and check the fluid levels in the brake master cylinder reservoir. After that, unscrew the cap and put it on top of the reservoir.
6. For the first brake, make sure to put a catch container above the height of the bleeder screw. Then, fit a segment of ¼ inch clear tubing over the end of the bleeder screw. Direct the other end of the tubing in your catch container.
7. Have someone else pump the brake pedal and tell you when they feel resistance. Once they feel resistance, they should keep their foot on the brake pedal.
8. With pressure maintained on the pedal, open up the bleeder screw. The brake pedal will sink on its own as you do this.
9. You want to bleed the brakes up until the pedal reaches the floor. Your assistant should tell you when this happens so you can close the bleeder screw immediately. Check the master cylinder reservoir fluid level once again and add fluid if need be.
10. Repeat steps 6 through 9 for the other three wheels in the specified order. Make sure you watch for an excess of air bubbles moving through the master cylinder reservoir.
11. Double-check to make sure your bleeder screws have been tightened right, then put your wheels back on.

As you can see from the above steps, learning how to bleed brake lines is quite a bit more complex than most car maintenance tasks, so if you’re a Weddington driver who doesn’t have much experience with this kind of thing, you can entrust your car to the Hendrick Cadillac Monroe service team to have it done by a professional.

Hendrick Cadillac Monroe Treats Your Cadillac Like Our Own

When you need your Cadillac maintained – whether it’s brand-new or vintage – come to Hendrick Cadillac Monroe. We have a team of experts who are here for one reason, to help you along in your car-buying and ownership journey. We’re here both online and in-person, so if you’d like to reach out, feel free to contact us and start a conversation!