What order did you bleed them in? I've had better luck with doing the opposite of the traditional RR, LR, RF, LF. I also use a homemade power bleeder an it makes it much easier to do alone.

 

I did RR, LR, RF, LF.

However I may not have bled them correctly. The clear tubing I got was too small so I used some blue vacuum tubing. Because it isn't clear I didn't submerge the end of it in fluid while bleeding, nor did I close the bleeder valve between each pump of the pedal. I'm guessing I sucked some air back up that way, though the bleeder appeared to be dripping fluid while I tightened it..if fluid was still coming out, can't see how air would be going in.

Oh, and, when doing the RF bleeder I let the level get a little too low and sucked a little bit of air in. I refilled the reservoir and kept bleeding, saw the air come out of the line and carried on. Is it possible air got into the rear lines? ABS?

Oh! Speaking of ABS…I did a VCDS scan and my ABS module is not responding...

 

Turns out ABS pumps need power to work.

I tested a circuit using an add a fuse last week and never put the original fuse back! No codes stored in the ABS. Pedal feels decent with the car off, turn the car on and the pedal is very soft with 3" of travel.

 

There is still air in the lines. You will need to bleed all 4. Pickup at least another liter of fluid. You'll have to move a lot through to get all of the air through the system.

 

Alright, will do. I'll also get the proper sized clear tubing.

 

Also, since you have a spare cap now, you could make one of the DIY power bleeders. It makes bleeding so easy.

 

Well, I believe I got things sorted. Drove the car today, did the bedding procedure. The car stops well, ABS works, no squealing or squeaking so far. Really love how the brakes fill out the wheel's barrel now.

Next up, the clutch.

 

As I'm walking behind my car to get in it today I feel my foot slip..I look down and theres a little fluid on the ground. I thought it was left over from when I bled the brakes and went to wipe it up when I see a puddle and trail of liquid.



Brake fluid…lots of it. Pop the hood and the reservoir is nearly empty, just above the level of the master cylinder.

This was my fault. I made a stupid mistake when I got the new reservoir. New reservoirs come with the ports capped on the bottom and with the clutch line sealed. To open it up you're supposed to cut off the end of the plastic. My old reservoir had only one port for the clutch line. The new reservoir had two nipples with plastic ends to be cut off…I cut both off and immediately realized my error. Oh the curse words that left my mouth.

In what appears to be a foolish attempt to fix the reservoir, I found the piece I cut off and glued the **** out of it. It held fluid for the last week, but no longer.



Lessons learned:

Double check that the parts are the same. Even with the same part number these reservoirs were molded slightly differently.

Don't attempt to glue your brake fluid reservoir. Don't attempt to glue your brake fluid reservoir. Don't attempt to glue your brake fluid reservoir.

When working on such critical components as the brake system, check your work on a routine basis until you are positive all is well.

So I made a $100 mistake. At least I caught the mistake before I took the car out for a drive today, it could've been a lot worse.

 

The dealership was nice enough to knock $20 off the price of a new reservoir so I got it for $70 instead of $90. Also picked up the little plastic tool to pull off the lug nut caps.

Installed the new reservoir, bled the brakes and clutch again but haven't taken the car out yet.

Tonight I worked on wiring up my bench testing/flashing harness. Not my prettiest work, but it should be sufficient. If I were to do this again I would build the harness inside a box for cleanliness.

One switch is to emulate the ignition switch and the other is to switch power on and off of pin 43. My understanding is that pin 43 must have 12v to flash 3.8.2 ECUs.

 

Bench testing rig works just dandy, got my ECU flashed with a new tune. I also re-plastidipped my last wheel, rewired the dash camera (again), got the proper bolt to tie down my full size spare, and retightened my pedal covers and shift ****.

In other news, just as everything seems to be coming together something else breaks. That seems to be the name of the game, although this pattern seems to be increasing. I guess that is also to be expected as there are fewer and fewer stock parts on the car.

This time it was the cat-turbo flange that broke cleanly leaving me with an open turbo/exhaust. I was testing out the new tune on some backroads and heard a loud pop, pulled over to find this.