had trouble bleeding brakes today '05 Nissan Altima

[LONO100]

not sure if this is the right section for this, but i had a little trouble bleeding the brakes on my buddy's wife's 05 nissan altima today and wanted to get some opinions.

ive bled brakes before, but for some reason, i couldntwas get all of the spongy feeling out of the pedal.

in a nutshell this is how i bled them:

-took wheel off
-put tube on nipple and box wrench
-had my buddy step on the brake pedal with a block under it so he couldnt go all the way to the floor
-opened the nipple a 1/4 turn
-let fluid and air flow down tube into bottle
-closed nipple, had buddy release pedal
-repeated until only fluid pumped out
-started procedure from rear passenger wheel, to rear driver, to front passenger, to front driver
-topped off reservoir

the first time we went around, the pedal was still pretty spongy, then we did it a second and it was much better, but the pedal still depresses pretty deep. the brakes do however bite right as you step on the pedal, but i just cant get the spongy feeling out of the system. i may have forgot to list some of the steps ive made, but if anyone has any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated. ive bled brakes on many different vehicles, but never had this much trouble getting the pedal to bite nice and clean. thanks again.

 

[OffTrac]

You didn't mention anything about checking the reservoir during and keeping it full but I assume you did. Other than that, exactly how I'd do it. Tell 'em it's just a Nissan thing.

 

[LONO100]

oh yeah, we did check and fill the reservoir after each wheel. the thing was that i think my buddy's father in law over filled the reservoir because before we started bleeding the brakes, i looked at the level and it was way past the max line and up to the top of the cap. so we didnt need to fill the reservoir until the last wheel we did. the level in it is right at the max line now, so i dont know. maybe i will tell him its a nissan thing!

 

[Rick]

I'm going to move this thread to our All Other Makes and Models forum.

 

[Blee1099]

On most newer ABS equipped vehicles, there's a special procedure and tool used to bleed the ABS pump. You probably have air trapped in the abs pump and your not getting a good pedal feel cause of it.

On most ABS equipped vehicles there are a few extra steps. After you do the normal rear right, rear left, front right, front left, you then do the abs pump(s) passenger side then drivers side. Some say after doing the abs pump(s) to re-do all the wheels one more time to make sure all the air is removed as much as possible.

 

[LONO100]

thanks blee, ive heard of this before andwent to this nissan forum, and it said that this particular altima didnt need to have any of these extra steps done so i just did it as usual. so after i had the trouble getting the spongy feeling to go away, i went to the trusty EF for more help.

i will look into this further though. thanks.

 

[BrooklynBay]

I had a problem trying to bleed the brakes on my 1995 van, so I tried the Dorman bleeder screws with built in check valves. It was spongy the first time, but worked the second time. They are easy to use, but a little more expensive compared to regular bleeder screws.

 

[LONO100]

i think you might be on to something brooklyn, i recall hearing what sounded like air coming and going from the threads on the nipples as i turned them open. my buddy said he was going to give it a drive tomorrow on the way to work, and if if he still doesnt like how it feels, we'll give it another go this week. he just had his first child so he's really thinking about safety these days. thanks again fellas for all the info, im not the greatest mechanic in the world so i could use all the help i can get.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Take off the bleeder screws, apply a drop of Locktite thread sealant, then try to bleed the brakes again.