Trying to bleed brakes but no fluid is being shifted

I must be doing something stupid here. I've changed the ABS modulator so trying to do a complete brake bleed. I've filled the brake fluid reservoir but when I pump the brake peddle (opening the passenger side from bleed nipple on the down and closing it on the up) no fluid is being pushed through the system. There's nothing coming out and the level in the reservoir isn't going down!

Have I missed something?

Its a '99 L Series.

try another bleed nipple on another wheel the one you are trying may be blocked or not quite open enough. hope this helps

Does anyone know if the master needs to be "primed" if its been emptied of fluid?

I haven't tried another wheel yet cos this on'e jacked and the wheel's off. I've unscrewed the nipple completely and taken it off but still no fluid is being pumped thru the system. No pressure/resistance on peddle.

I've put it to bed for the night. I'll disconnect the feed to the ABS unit in the morning and pump the brake to see if it makes it through to there - will at least prove the master's working OK.

I just replaced the modulator on my td5 last week and experienced a similar thing at first but the fluid did start moving after a while. The main point to remember is to go really slowly on the downward stroke as its harder to displace such a high volume of air from the system. Having the bleed nipple fully open as you already doing helps.

Hi grumpy

there aren't any plastic plugs left in the modulator block by any chance ?????

Did you bleed the abs unit? If not.
Put on the two main feed pipes, loosen the pipes that go to the wheels, find the abs relay and bridge it out very briefly, do this a couple of times until fluid comes out of the 4 pipe connectors. Re tighten the pipes that go to the wheels and bleed as normal. Start the furthest away from the master cylinder and bleed each closer wheel next.

Thanks folks. The unit is from my regular Freelander breakers. When he took it off the original car, he crimped and cut the 6 pipes rather than unscrewing them. So there won't be any plastic plugs in there and hopefully there was fluid in it. It was 1/2 light when I installed it so I couldn't notice if leaking fluid was from my pipes or the unit when I took the old crimped bits off. I removed the old crimped pipes and screwed mine in one at a time so there wasn't ever much time while a 'hole' was open.

Running the ABS pump to flll the unit (or even bleed the whole system!) sounds like a super way of doing it. Could rig a switch on a long wire to reach the wheels and bleeding would be far easier I'll research that.

See how I get on today - no golf to get in the way - just work!

I would be a little cautious running the pump for too long and it wont bleed your master cylinder and feed pipes. I would just bleed as normal after you've primed the unit

Bugger, how about the HDC bit - that must push fluid through the system!

Everywhere you read about bleeding the brakes they say to bleed the furthest away brake first and finish with the closest. I'm going by the Rave manual which says to start at the front (passenger then drivers side), then do the rears. This seams strange but there is presumably a reason, maybe its something to do with the pressure reducing valve to the back brakes.

I fitted a new (to me) abs unit, I did exactly what I've described and it worked perfectly, I bled it twice just to be sure.

Thanks for that. It sounds a bit drastic to manually turn on the ABS pump - but if you've done it and it didn't blow anything then I'll give it a go, ta.

I've always followed the rave and Haynes manual when bleeding...
front passenger, front driver, rear passenger, rear driver
that's on a right hand drive Freelander 1

You may have to run diags to actuate the abs pump....do freelander diags have this option?

I've been trawling over Rave. It says that it runs start up tests and if everything is OK will turn the pump on momentarily. However, with the Amigos still lit, it doesn't turn the pump on - I was hoping I could just turn the ignition on a couple of times to replicate what Kevin is suggesting - but no.

I was trawling Rave to find the ABS Pump Relay. I've found it referenced in various sections - but it only talks about it and doesn't say where it is. So I've just searched on its C508 connector and found it! I'll try it tomorrow now. I think I'll remove the connectors from the ABS ECU before I do it as the feed to the pump also goes to the ECU (presumably to show that it is actually turned on) and I don't want to blow it!

I don't have any diags so can't turn the pump on/off even if there is a command to do it. According to Rave though its a pretty simple circuit though the Pump from the Relay/Connector - so with the ECU unplugged it shouldn't be able to harm anything. The feed to the Relay is a 30AMP fusible link - so the thing should be pretty robust - or does that just make it more treacherous as there will be quite a bit of power going through it!

Can't beat pressure bleeding

jedi said:

You may have to run diags to actuate the abs pump....do freelander diags have this option?

Click to expand...

you just need to bridge out the relay, no need to run diagnostics

Well I couldn't get that relay off! Could get all the other relays in the fuse box off - but not the ABS Pump one! I gave it a good tug, but I wasn't going to break it, so left it be.

Plan B time. Actually that was Plan B, so turned to Plan C

I took the FL and RR (ie the ones on the circuit for the FL) brake pipes out of the ABS Unit. Pumped the brakes and nothing come out! No signs of anything - not even any bubbles. I knew the master was pumping fluid as I'd loosened the pipe coming from it.

So fluid must be going into the unit, but being swallowed by some cavity and sucked back out. So I got a small syringe (one we poke down the dog's ears!) and filled it with fluid. Then pushed it into the FL hole in the ABS Unit. Some just spilled out - but less than was pushed in! So repeated until it was obvious nothing more was going in. All this time, no signs of movement from the RR hole - which surprised me. So, I took the syringe to the RR hole. Same as with the FL, but this time it also started spilling out of the FL as well. So pumped the brake peddle. Bubbles and spitting from the holes - good signs, some fluid spilled and fluid receeded back down holes. So syringed them a couple of times and press of brake - repeated a few times till bubbles basically stopped.

So, time to test. I wanted to know the circuit was just feeding the FL, so I took the crimped 'plug' that was in the RR when it was supplied and bunged that back in. Reconnected the FL brake pipe and called my able assistant to pump the brakes. First pump, out came fluid

So I bled the whole brake fluid reservoir from max to min through the wheel, then moved onto the FR. That bled fine, so once again bled a whole reservoir full through it. Onto the RL and same there. Onto the RR and no fluid!

Feck, Bugger, S**t, Bugger. But the brake peddle was hard on this wheel. So I'm thinking as its dual circuit, the bled circuit is stopping the peddle being pushed. So jack the other rear side up as well and bleed that (again!) at the same time. Peddle moved this time, but still no fluid from RR!!!!!!

Inside to get a cigarette. As I walk around the front of the car, I happen to look at the ABS Unit and see that I still had the bung in the RR hole

So sorted that and bled the RR. Tidied up, put the new battery on, calibrated the back window and out for a test drive. The brakes work - they stop the car and no pulling left or right, but they're not fantastic. So I think I'll go buy another 3 bottles of brake fluid and give them another bleed tomorrow.

Still got the Amigos, so looks like the code will need clearing (or after all this I was sold a duff unit!).

Bled the brakes again today. Another Max to Min on the reservoir for each wheel and brakes are back to normal now

Nothing is without incident though. I didn't want any bubbles stuck in the ABS unit, so I drove the back wheels onto blocks before starting - raising the unit where the wheel pipes exit.

So I bled the front wheels chocking each in turn. Then shifting to the back, I wanted to roll it off the blocks - but didn't want to touch the brakes. So put some blocks back from the front wheels to stop the car when it rolled off the ones at the back. Anyway, it was bound to happen, it rolled off the back blocks, then up and over the front blocks and just carried on rolling! Straight into a fence! I'm hoping it hasn't pushed the spare wheel into the door - but I haven't been brave enough to lower the rear window yet!