bleeding brakes with ABS
 

something is fucked, and I assume there is air in the lines. I assume the abs shit is fucked up / has air in it. What's the procedure to stop fucking up?

yes, I have down's.

Your welcome.

oh it's a fucking bitch with ABS. I found that out last year when I got my first 94 with ABS. Here is what I did. The normal bleeding procedure plus

when you have someone pushing the brake pedal, crack the banjo bolts 1 at a time on the ABS unit. Yes it's messy but it'll help eliminate air. Have them pump and hold and then crack one open. Pump and hold and then crack another open. etc. then go drive the car around and activate the ABS as much as possible. wet sandy roads are best for this.
after doing that for a lil bit go back and bleed again. then repeat the whole process until you get the pedal firm like it used to be

there is another way - go get yourself 2 or three biggish syringes - where the "needle" fitting it is about the same size as a piece of rubber pipe you can hook between the syringe and the bleed nipple - fill syringe with brake fluid and reverse bleed the brakes - you will need someone to use another syringe to "suck" the excess fluid out the master cylinder

I only do the reverse bleed once I flushed the system out to prevent the dirty old / burnt "fluid" in the calipers going through the system

sometimes when bleeding the brakes you need to have ign on or even engine on - to allow the abs unit to allow a bleed other wise you will be farting against thunder - my miata is non abs so I am not sure how the miata abs works but on my evo the ign had to be on to allow a proper brake bleed

how about the easy way? do it with the car running.

just thought I'd wake this thread up and state that I'm not a fucking moron. My sis ended up taking her car to the dealer because no one could get this shit to work, and it turns out she's scored a new master cylinder and everything is cool now.

I had the hardest time getting a firm pedal with the ABS unit. I started to notice I would bleed the brakes and everything would be great until i started backing out of the driveway and the ABS would cycle. So I threw it back on jackstands, and let the rear wheels spin a tad and hit the brakes, since they lock up instantly the ABS cycles....after I did this a few times and bleed again, I found a huge amount of air and old fluid still in the system. Brakes were much improved.

maybe my ignorance will shine through, but what if you pull the ABS fuse and just bleed as normal?

I just spend half the day fighting pedal feel. I can pump it very hard in 3x when the engine is off and it will stay hard, but with the engine off the feel is far less. It was better the first time out with my Wilwoods.

What are the symptoms of a MC going bad?

In for help on getting firm. I keep trying but it still is squishy. :hustler:

i bleed it like a non abs car and say fuck the rest, i have bled my car with a abs bleeding pump thing and with the car running and the pedal is very firm but as soon as i start the car and the vac assisted system kick on the pedal is soft as a pillow no matter what i do to bleed my car.

I've done the bleeding, like a regular.... Its been so long, maybe I just have gotten used to the pedel....

I've got speedbleeders in the calipers though, so maybe that helps. You just keep pumping from the front, and watch the resevoir level.....

Never done it with the car running..... always get lots of fluid flowing through by the time I've finished though......

Dave,

Gotta cycle the ABS a couple times. With all the extra lines and fluid running around the cars with ABS it's really easy to not get a good flush and leave bad fluid or air in the system.

OMFG yes bleeding with abs sucks. No, bleeding with the car running doesn't do the trick. I've cycled about a gallon through this way. Also, bleeding with speed bleeders also doesn't do the trick since I have speed bleeders. I'll try cycling the abs.. Ugh

Replaced MC, rr caliper (bad seal) and pads and rotors, adjusted parking brake. Using power vac bleeder. Still need to go out for test drive and cycle ABS... pedal is so-so, far from great yet.

This is bullshit. Does anyone have the factory procedure for bleeding Miata ABS brakes? I read about this for a while on the internet and we're not the only people that have problems with ABS bleeding. There might be some super special thing we're supposed to do that we don't know about. I've tried cycling my abs on pavement, lifting the rear and braking, and have literally pumped several liters through my system to try to get the pedal as firm as it was before I fucked with it and installed SS lines.

Again, does anyone have the factory procedure? It may vary between the years. Personally I'd like to see the procedure for 01+ ABS. thank you

Just called a miata shop nearby, there is no special tooling or method for ABS systems in the NA model. Key is bleeding, testdrive, bleeding, testdrive, back to square one until you're satistied.

you can probably trigger the abs motor by providing 12v to the red/yellow wire off the ABS controller box. let it cycle like forevez.

1. jack up car
2. remove wheels and tires
3. remove ABS from car, you big vagina
4. install normal non-pussy brakes
5. bleed as normal
6. install wheels, lower car
7. ball hard