Looking to bleed my brakes in my Beetle that has been sitting around for 8 yrs. The pedal is still solid but I've tested the fluid and well overdue for renewal.

My question is:

Is there a particular order that I need to bleed them in, to get all the old fluid out of the system?

Left rear 1st & then right rear etc.

CP

drain the fluid container and remove and wash out if it dirty wash any fluid off the car as you go otherwise it will rip the paint

also chack yr rubber flex brake hose to see if there perished or cracked change all of them if one is buggered

since its been sitting 4 ten years i would also check the wheel cyclinder to make sure the pistons are not frozen in place

you will have to do more work than just bleeding the brakes to make sure its safe


bleed from the furthest point so rear passenger side first you may have to pump the pedal a few times to get fluid through

that's it with all the checks.......

we do the same with the notch as the race fluid goes super snotty after sitting for two years at a time. (i now intend to bleed all four wheels after each meet as it took two feet on the pedal to release the gelly from the front caliper)

however we've found to have one circuit with pressure all the time works best when we completely change fluid.

we pull and clean the resivoir then top it up with new fluid but only up to the top of the split dam that divides the front from rear circuits

open only one of the rears and pump till the pedal looses pressure, then we top the fluid again and get pressure again by bleeding that cylinder (rough bleed & constantly checking resivoir), then we bleed the other side into a small glass jar as the different colour of the new fluid is clear to see and when it arrives your good.

now the rear circuit has all new fluid from the resivoir to the wheel and you still have pressure on the pedal to do the front in the same manor...............pump the circuit dry, top and maintain resivoir fluid level, get pressure back in "dry" wheel, bleed other side whilst watching for new fluid to arrive.

make sure if your front calipers have two bleed nipples to do both top and bottom nipples as old fluid stops at the lower one too....................some people only do the top nipple bleed as technically this is where the air will be, but when completely changing fluid do both!

then for us it's best to walk away and let all the air bubbles settle overnight and do the final bleed the next day

this way takes about an hour, we used 800ml of fluid to do this prcess each time, get the race grade fluid and do it once a year.

excited to see that machine going again, top stuff Craig!!!!!

Thanks Dave/Daimo


Really good info there!

I tell a lie though,my beetle has only been sitting since 2000. Don't know where I got the 10 years from.

It does feel like 10 yrs since I drove it though.

CP

I just kept bleeding until the fluid was the right colour..

which took a lot of bottles of brake fluid...

but i replaced the cylinders and brake hoses.. etc..

and it was a pain and took a long time to get all the air out.

I know many people have problems especially if the master cylinder is removed.

Best of Luck

LEE