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Originally Posted by chaudanova
Hey Jim, seems like there are several models listed there for the powerbleeders that would work for Porsches. Is there a particular model you would suggest from personal experience?
Thanks in advance...
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Hi,
Well, they pretty much all do the same thing. Years ago, I used a product called the EZ-Bleed. This was a pressure bottle that you put the brake fluid into and screwed a Top to the Master Cylinder. The EZ-Bleed was pressurised by hooking it up to a Tire and the compressed air in the Tire provided the pressure to bleed the Brakes. It worked well, but having to provide an external supply of air (the Tire) was cumbersome.
About 5 yrs. ago, Motive came out with their self-contained Power Bleeder. This had the advantage of a pump on the Pressure Bottle so no external supply of air was necessary. I've had one for 5 yrs., used it on every car I own with excellent results.
Both the EZ-Bleed and the Motive make for true one-man Brake Bleeding.
About 10 yrs. ago, a product called the Mity-Vac was introduced. This was a hand-held, hand-operated vacuum pump. It differed in that instead of forcing the brake fluid through the system under pressure, you hooked this up the the Bleeder Valve on the Caliper or Drum itself and used vacuum pressure to draw the fluid through the system. I have one, but use it primarily to check vacuum solenoids, distributer Vac Advances and such because as a Brake Bleeder, it leaves much to be desired. First, it has no reservoir from which to draw the Brake Fluid - only the reservoir on the Master Cylinder. This means that you must have 2 people to use it, either that, or you're constantly crawling from beneath the car to keep the Master Cylinder topped up, because if you don't, you'll draw air through the system. Also, you had to purchase a separate Brake Bleed attachment which caught the fluid you were drawing out. Finally, once you opened the Bleeder Valve, it often allowed air to pass by the threads of the Bleeder Valve seriously reducing the vacuum pressure available to draw the fluid.
As I stated, with ABS, you need a certain amount of pressure to pass the fluid past the various ABS valves and trying with the traditional pedal pumping method puts serious strain on the Master Cylinder and I've seen several of these fail shortly after this method was used. On the '03 up cars, you actually should have a PST2 to pre-open the ABS Valves for proper bleeding.
There are other makes of Bleeders out there, but they are variations of the ones I've already described. Of all the ones I've used, I believe that the Motive Power Bleeder is the best tool, and the most Bang for the buck. It's well made, has an ample fluid reservoir, has a Pressure Gauge to insure that you don't over pressure your braking system - no more than 19PSI for proper Master Cylinder Health, is well made and reasonably priced. This is the one I use and recommend...
Happy Motoring!... Jim'99