Please "enlighten me" about: Power brake bleeders

I've decided I need a power brake bleeder, for several reasons. I bleed the brakes on the LeMons car every race, along with being general maintenance for all of the street cars. Right now I also have Saab 9000 with a slightly soft brake pedal and apparently to bleed the ABS system, some pressure helps.

I've heard plenty of times "Motive", but is that the end all, be all of pressure bleeders?

The cars it will be used on are a mix of Japanese and European including: 91 Honda Civic (lemons car), 07 Mazda 3, 07 BMW Z4M, 99 Land Rover DiscoII, 94 Chevy S10 (Lemons car 2), plus assorted BABE cars.

Is there anything to know? Brands to get? Accessories that are needed?

Bring it on...

I had my Motive and loved it. The one I had was for Euros but there were adapter kits for other makes.

That with the dual color ATE brake fluids made solo bleeding a snap.

I've used a old Snap-On professional unit and I own a Motive. I absolutely love it.

Invest in the fitted cap for your chosen vehicle, especially if it's a Miata. (In fact, I may have a Miata cap for sale that I no longer need).

I have a Motive and I also absolutely love it. Works great for the Miata but they don't make a cap for the S2000 because of how the cap attaches to the cylinder. Something about not being able to get a good seal because of the 2 L-shaped prongs the cap has. Not sure if your Civic has the same cap design but just something to be aware of.

make one out of an old propane tank with an air line hooked up with a pressure regulator set to about 5 psi..

I bought the ~$20 one from Commie Freight, I've only used it once, but made bleeding the brakes by yourself a piece of cake.
Pneumatic Brake Fluid Bleeder

You've got to have an air hose hooked up to it, best as I can tell air from the compressor causes a venturi sucking the brake fluid out of which ever caliper you have it attached to. I don't know if that's technically a "power brake bleeder."

• Lee

• a billion for the Motive. When I was doing a lot of track events w/ the M3 I found I could swap on the track brake pads + wheels and bleed all 4 calipers to fresh fluid visible in about an hour including loading the car. Considering this usually happened at about 10:30 PM Friday night w/ an 0600 departure, the Motive was paying it's way.

+1 for motive, especailly with the custom fitted cap.

Got my motive, love it. Just make sure you flush the lines out when you're done. I left a small trace of fluid in the lines, ended up splitting them. rookie move

used one of those for the first time yesterday actually, easy as can be.suck out all the old fluid in the mc with the bleeder, dump the brake fluid in the filling reservoir, set it on top of the mc, open the valve, go from wheel to wheel with the bleeder (it's hooked up to air) and just pop it on the bleeder and crack the screw open. wait a couple of minutes (go on this site, which is what I did yesterday between calipers) then switch wheels. ridiculously convenient.
the one we have at the shop is very similar to the snap on, will find out what brand it is but it works amazingly.

these are worth a look for something besides the Motive

http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/one-person+brake+bleeder.do?sortby=ourPicks&page=3

this is the one I hope I get for Christmas

http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/reverse+brake+bleeder+kit.do?sortby=ourPicks

bigdaddylee82 wrote: I bought the ~$20 one from Commie Freight, I've only used it once, but made bleeding the brakes by yourself a piece of cake. Pneumatic Brake Fluid Bleeder You've got to have an air hose hooked up to it, best as I can tell air from the compressor causes a venturi sucking the brake fluid out of which ever caliper you have it attached to. I don't know if that's technically a "power brake bleeder." - Lee

I've used the $100+ Snap Off version of this one and in a shop environment (ie. with an air compressor) it's fantastic.

I DIYed a Motive type pressure bleeder for about 25 bones. Buy the yard sprayer with a threaded thingy in the side. Use a junkyard master cylinder cap and don't cheap out on the pressure gauge - I think I might have hosed the seals in my last M/C with too much pressure:

I broke down and bought a Motive unit last summer. Have a euro cap for my BMW and the girlfriend's VW and a cap for my RX-7. It is a great unit and has paid for itself many times. Makes bleeding/flushing brakes a cinch.

Couldn't one just turn their air compressor regulator way down and hook that muthasucka up to an old master cylinder cap?

Taiden,

The positive pressure to force out the fluid via the MC is just one part. The tank of the bleeder feeds in fresh fluid while proving the pressure.

That said someone did say that they built their own for $25.

+1 for the Motive bleeder. I finally broke down and bought one for my Saturn after getting tired of trying to find friends to work the brake peddle for me. It is in my opinion money well spent. Bleeding brakes now is super easy.

neckromacr wrote: Taiden, The positive pressure to force out the fluid via the MC is just one part. The tank of the bleeder feeds in fresh fluid while proving the pressure. That said someone did say that they built their own for $25.

You don't have to fill the bottle with fluid. Just use it to pressurize the brake system and add fluid directly to the MC when it gets low. Bit tedious having to constantly check the MC and unscrew the cap to add fluid but it does work. So if you don't mind having to do that then I suppose the regulator could be an option.

I bought a cheap pressure sprayer, and then bought the cap adapter from motive.

I bought a cheap sprayer and the Motive adapter as well. Cheap and easy.

In reply to wbjones:

I have the Griots vacuum bleeder attachment to their fluid evacuator. It doesn't work well at all for me - the cap onto the bleed screw doesn't make a good seal so I get a stream of bubbly brake fluid.

I tried the DIY garden sprayer version and failed. I'll be getting a Motive adapter to replace my modified master cylinder cap and try again.