[Vulcan50]

So I recently did a bunch of work to my suspension, and while I was at it I did stainless steel lines, and painted my calipers. I miss understood the point of keeping the brake pedal pressed as keeping it from dripping. I didn't want to put long term pressure on the seat leather or moving mechanisms, figured "meh, what are a few drips?" Well the entire system drained.

Still not a big deal I needed to flush the system anyway...

Well I used inpa to run the bleed sequence for each caliper (used the one way valve drain tube on the bleeder screw), topping off after each sequence. On the last one I had to restart the sequence, otherwise everything went well.

Finally get to drive it today and the pedal goes pretty much to the floor with almost no brake. I can still stop but I better be barely moving.

Do I need to do something special for the abs pump? I don't know how there could be enough air in the line to be that bad of a pedal feel.


TLDR: entire brake system drained, inpa bled all calipers, still no brakes.

[mweisdorfer]

Originally Posted by Vulcan50

So I recently did a bunch of work to my suspension, and while I was at it I did stainless steel lines, and painted my calipers. I miss understood the point of keeping the brake pedal pressed as keeping it from dripping. I didn't want to put long term pressure on the seat leather or moving mechanisms, figured "meh, what are a few drips?" Well the entire system drained.

Still not a big deal I needed to flush the system anyway...

Well I used inpa to run the bleed sequence for each caliper (used the one way valve drain tube on the bleeder screw), topping off after each sequence. On the last one I had to restart the sequence, otherwise everything went well.

Finally get to drive it today and the pedal goes pretty much to the floor with almost no brake. I can still stop but I better be barely moving.

Do I need to do something special for the abs pump? I don't know how there could be enough air in the line to be that bad of a pedal feel.


TLDR: entire brake system drained, inpa bled all calipers, still no brakes.

You can use ISTA D to do the ABS. It's possible you got some air bubbles in that system.

You can always do an old fashioned BMW bleed.

The Bentley Repair Manual spells out how to to this,

[Vulcan50]

Would the ISTA bleed have different results that INPA?

[Phil325i]

This might help you OP:

[Vulcan50]

Thanks I actually watched that before I posted. My understanding was that it was for resetting the bite point. Which my brakes were "ok" prior to the drain issue.

Today I was messing around in inpa and cycled the abs valve. Which immediately gave a better pedal feel. But as soon as I started to drive (even back out of my driveway) it went back to terrible.

Would having my headlights out, throwing a number of warnings including dsc. could this be creating some sort of limp mode for the abs?

[bluewater328]

Originally Posted by Vulcan50

Thanks I actually watched that before I posted. My understanding was that it was for resetting the bite point. Which my brakes were "ok" prior to the drain issue.

Today I was messing around in inpa and cycled the abs valve. Which immediately gave a better pedal feel. But as soon as I started to drive (even back out of my driveway) it went back to terrible.

Would having my headlights out, throwing a number of warnings including dsc. could this be creating some sort of limp mode for the abs?

If you were getting a DSC error beforehand, it might be an issue. But I'm not sure there's a brake specific limp mode - it would just stop your car from going over 2k. Certainly wouldn't be a safe mode that made the brakes not work.

Also have you simply gone back over your lines. Since you installed new SS lines, is everything tight? Do you have upgrades, larger or multiple pistons calipers?

[Vulcan50]

Originally Posted by bluewater328

If you were getting a DSC error beforehand, it might be an issue. But I'm not sure there's a brake specific limp mode - it would just stop your car from going over 2k. Certainly wouldn't be a safe mode that made the brakes not work.

Also have you simply gone back over your lines. Since you installed new SS lines, is everything tight? Do you have upgrades, larger or multiple pistons calipers?

No errors before hand, just a due for a flush indicator.

Stock calipers (painted), new pads and rotors upfront. Stock replacement lines. I'll double check for leaks, but didn't see anything. I double checked lines were tight. The master cylinder is still full, after a bunch of pedal cycles.