Just doing some routine maintenance today and I snapped the passenger side front bleeder screw. I am sure this has happened to some of us before. What are my next steps? Is the car driveable? No fluid is leaking as it snapped in the closed position. Is my only drawback that I can't bleed the fluid on that side or will trouble creep up in the near future as a result?
Any thoughts anyone?
Thx a bunch
Fern
First of all you don't need to bleed brake system as maintenance. You bleed when you open the system, like changing a caliper or cylinder. Anyway, if your pedal is feel good and you don't need to bleed anymore on that side you can leave it that way. Air won't come in or oil out. The only point is that won't be able to bleed on that side. You can try to drill it out and put a new bleeder but that will be a loss of time.
Nic.
Thx that is what i thought.
I track my car many times a year and have found it necessary to bleed the brakes. My fluid looks quite nasty after a track day or two.
Thx
Fern
It is a good idea to CHANGE brake fluid from time to time. You will not be able to purge that caliper now since the bleeder is broken.
It may be at least partually due to the lack of changing the fluid that the bleeder is stuck and broke.
So one approach could be to leave it alone until that caliper gives other problems and then replace the caliper. A better approach would be to try to finish removing the bleeder but have a replacement caliper lined up in case you don't succeed.
How often should you change the brake fluid? It somewhat depends on how hard you drive your car. Every time the brakes are used a tiny bit of atmosphere (with moisture) gets past the various seals. The moisture alone does damage as the fluid looses it's ability to absorbe the moisture. The boiling point of the fluid drops as well so that you have less reserve before boiling the brake fluid during high demand braking situations. If the brake fluid boils, you have no brakes until it cools down. Heat from agressive braking accelerates the deteriation of the fluid. The fluid eventually becomes corrosive and eats up the inside metal parts of the brake system.
DOT 3 fluid should be changed at least every 4 years. DOT 4 fluid should be changed at least every two years. Racing teams usually change the brake fluid every race! I use DOT 4 fluid and change it every year, during the cars aniversary month.
So it's your car, and your safety involved, but at least you now have more complete information to make a decision on.
I have had the fluid changed a few times over the last year or so. So I know that it wasn't from a lack of fluid changing. It must have been a brain fart on my part or something like that.
If I am successful in backing out the remainder of the screw I assume that as soon as I back it out fluid will be spewing out? At least until I can get the replacement screw in? At that point I would have to bleed again to get any air out. Are my assumptions correct?
Thx for help so far.
Fern
Fern,
I've snapped a few also. For some reason in 99 Ford switched to a smaller bleeder screw that with any amount 9of corrosion will snap right off (much smaller than any other ones). I've never been able to extract a bleeder out of our calipers, for the time and hassle involved I just pay the $40-$50 for a rebuild unit.
Usually what I do now is Spary the bleeders with som penetrating oild before and go around the edge of the threads with a pin or some other object wit a point to break whatever surface corrosion is there
A set of easy outs *might* do the job.....
one thing to think about with bleeders is to clean and lube when you open and bleed them. I.e. before you start to try and brake them loose, clean the area around them to prevent more dirt from getting in when open them. Also, don't be a brute. I'm very very delicate with mine and use some penetrating oil when i brake them loose. I have not broken one on any of the cars I have done it on. That being said. Most of the cars I've done it on are pretty well maintained and it's do regularly preventing excessive corosion.
-Andy
i replaced mine with speedbleeders when doing my brakes. the front will not spurt out but will trickle out at a quick pace cuz its on an angle unlike the rear. i just covered the hole with a rag and pressure til i put the speedbleeder in. just be quick. u should not have to fill the reservoir while doing this (i mean not be worried about the reservoir getting dangerously low).
when flushing contour brakes for the 1st time I used mityvac pump. to make it work I had to take the screw out, wrap it w/ teflon tape and put it back. the teflon tape stayed there w/ no issues for a couple of years. the reason I bring this up is that perhaps having teflon tape wrapped around would eliminate seizing...
no longer have that car, so can't test the theory, but strictly theoretically it makes sense.