Another FL5 Civic Brake Bleed Thread - Ran the Reservoir too low

[2000drz400e]

Hi all,

My first post here. My buddy owns an FL5 civic and we did a dum dum and ran the reservoir too low while bleeding the brakes and introduced air into the system. We read none of the typical procedure for this vehicle and just bleed the front and rear driver corners then front and rear passenger corners. We got air into the system doing the driver rear corner. We were pretty worried but were able to get an OK pedal feel after repeated pumping and bleeding with the normal 2 person method where you pump the pedal a few times and crack the bleeder.

But we want to go over the system again and make sure it's actually right, my friend is saying the pedal still feels not quite as firm as it did before we touched it. SMH....

I've been doing a lot of googling and finding some conflicting information, is it possible with this car to do an automated ABS bleed procedure with the right scan tool? Would the Foxwell NT630plus work for this? I'm talking about the procedure where you run a wizard on teh scan tool, it instructs you to go to each corner and crack a bleeder, then the ABS system pumps brake fluid out of that corner for you without you having to touch the brake pedal.

From what I'm reading and posts by @PointByPatrol the official Honda service manual procedure goes like this:
-Bleed with pressurebleeder, vacuum bleeder, or 2 person method, doesn't matter which
-Bleed in this order: Driver Front, Passenger Front, Passenger Rear, Driver Rear
-Cycle the Parking brake 5 times
-Bleed the passenger Rear and driver Rear again
I of course do not have this service manual... Does anybody have screenshots or something of this procedure from the service manual they could share?

But I can't find any mention anywhere of someone bothering with the ABS system. Or any posts of people dumb enough to run the reservoir empty like we did...
Doesn't this leave old fluid in the ABS pump/accumulator/solenoids or something like that? Or does the brake fluid flush with the above method push fluid through these components?

I can't help but think in our case we need to do something with the ABS system since we ran the reservoir low and introduced air through the top of the system. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks!

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[PointByPatrol]

Don't stress. The procedure that I wrote down is what you need to follow even though you introduced air through the reservoir. You may need to repeat the procedure specifically for the rears more than once. Yes, Honda can likely perform an ABS bleed, but I doubt it's actually necessary in this situation, as a standard brake bleeding procedure should be more than enough to rid the ABS of any trapped air that "may" be inside it. To answer your question, the method I stated does indeed push brake fluid through those components.

 

[2000drz400e]

So do you think the Foxwell NT630 or any other scan tools could do the ABS bleed on this vehicle? Certainly if it's an option it seems like the proper way to do it.

Otherwise I suppose we will just try again but be sure to do the 5 time parking brake cycle as part of it.

 

[PointByPatrol]

I'm not familiar enough with that scan tool to know if it has the pid needed to perform the ABS bleed.

 

[Gansan]

Here is the FK8 service manual page for brake bleeding. The procedure should be identical as the FL5.

 

[TDC50]

As others said, the procedure you wrote down is the way to go. Highly, highly recommend a pressure bleeder (using the dry method which is constantly toppin off the reservoir vs loading the bleeder bottle with fluid) or using vacuum bleeder. Get at least 1500ml of brake fluid at the ready. Once u pull a large amount of air into the lines you will need to go through a lot of fluid to get the air out.

When using the pressure bleeder or vacuum bleeder, let each bleeder stay open for a good 20 seconds or so.

I had this issue as I accidentally pulled air into the reservoir as well. Took about 3 rounds of bleeding before the pedal pressure was as good as new.

 

[s2kdriver80]

Just to clarify... it is clockwise starting from driver front correct (and not FD, FP, RD, RP)? Also, is it advised to flush out the clutch fluid at the same time? Is it all interconnected with the brake system? Getting the brake fluid flushed out this weekend, hopefully the shop does it all without issue.

 

[s2kdriver80]

So it looks like it's a good idea to do brake and clutch bleed at the same time. Brake first, then clutch. Clutch bleed is quicker and simple in comparison.

 

[Gansan]

Just to clarify... it is clockwise starting from driver front correct (and not FD, FP, RD, RP)? Also, is it advised to flush out the clutch fluid at the same time? Is it all interconnected with the brake system? Getting the brake fluid flushed out this weekend, hopefully the shop does it all without issue.

The service manual says to do it in clockwise order. FD, FP, RP, RD.

 

[2000drz400e]

I updated my first post to fix the order of ops on the corners to match the service manual.

Also we ordered the nt630 anyways since we want to use the brake maintenance mode when we put better pads on the rear. According to the foxwell site it should be able to.

I'll let you guys know if it's capable of doing the ABS bleed or not when we test, might be a couple weeks though.

 

[djl526blue]

Hello to all brake bleeders,

I've done this service several times to a few different cars. I've never checked the manual for directions so thanks for posting those. My research from various tech forums was to start with the wheel furthest from the brake reservoir and work back to it which for the FL5 would be PR, DR, PF, DF. That appears to be the opposite of what the manual is recommending. I haven't done my first bleed on my FL5 yet, but for the more tech savvy posters than me, how come this sequence is backwards from every other source I've used over the years?

 

[2000drz400e]

You'll see someone posted a PDF taken right from the service manual a few posts back, just perform the procedure listed there and you'll be just fine!

Also an update. My friend received the foxwell nt630 and we did confirm you can run the abs and vsa solenoids independently with it. It also does the parking brake maintenance mode. For what it's worth. We haven't had time to see what happens if you crack a bleeder with it running the solenoid for that corner but plan to try when we do the next round of bleeding. Might be a few weeks though.

 

[Mrrobotto555]

If air got in through the reservoir you may have an air bubble trapped in the master. You can get a universal master cylinder bleed kit for cheap. You route hoses from the outlet ports into the reservoir and pump it untill no more air bubbles are being pushed through, then proceed with preferred bleed procedure

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