I had a brake fluid leak and it completely drained the reservoir. The car was not on when this happened so the peddle was never touched (not sure if that makes a difference). Anyway, I am familiar with the process of bleeding the brake lines so I assume at a minimum I will need to do that after I fix the leak. What I'm wondering about is if there are any extra steps that I need to do since the reservoir was completely drained. All the bleeding instructions I've ever seen warn strongly against letting the reservoir go dry. So now that it has happened, what does that mean for me? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Pushes in fresh fluid from the reservoir. Sometimes easier than trying to vacuum or pump from the caliper espically when there is a lot of air throughout the system.
I ended up following the FSM bleed procedure and everything was fine. Brakes feel good now.
1. Turn ignition switch OFF and disconnect ABS actuator and electric unit (control unit) connector or battery negative cable.
2. Connect a vinyl tube to the rear right bleed valve.
3. Fully depress brake pedal 4 to 5 times.
4. With brake pedal depressed and using a flare nut wrench or suitable tool, loosen the bleed valve to let air out, then tighten bleed valve immediately.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until no more air comes out.
6. Tighten bleed valve to the specified torque. Front disc brake refer to FSM BR-22, "Components Diagram". Rear disc brake refer to FSM BR-28, "Components Diagram".
7. Perform steps 2 to 6 at each wheel, with master cylinder reservoir tank filled at least half way, bleed air from the front left, rear left, and front right bleed valve, in that order.
Is it strictly necessary? I would say "No" since there have been times that I forgot to disconnect the negative terminal of the battery and bled the brakes just fine. It's probably one of those precautionary steps that is a good practice since it prevents the possibility of something getting screwed up with the ABS system, however unlikely that may be.
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