So I suspected that my front brakes were starting to stick so I decided to swap them and the pads out. After swapping the calipers out I bled both the front brakes without bleeding the back. I bled them and kept adding new fluid as required but the brake pedal was still going to the floor. I kept thinking how could a master cylinder go bad right after doing a caliper swap. I started to bleed the back brakes then work my way to the front and still the pedal was going to the floor.


After a couple hours of messing with this, my wife noticed this situation was stressing me out (probably from the wrench tossing and cussing), and was kind enough to Google up some answers. I tried this already earlier and thought it was wasting her time but she did anyway. She came up with a question that I thought was ridiculous but I answered it, "that shouldn't matter". The question was where were the bleeder screws located on the calipers? The way I had mounted the calipers was where the bleeder screws pointed towards the rear of the truck. She said that they should point up (12 o'clock). I don't think it matters but I'm willing to try anything by this point. I swapped them around, bleeder screws pointed up, bled only the front brakes again working from right to left and sure enough, brake pedal stayed firm, truck has been driving fine since.


Long story short, bleeder screws should always point up unless manufactuer states otherwise. These calipers were from Advance Auto. Nobody I work with knew this so I figured I'd pass it along.

 

Actually had a friend who did the same thing a year or two ago. Reason that happens is because if the bleeders aren't at the highest point, there will be an air pocket trapped in there no matter what, which means a soft pedal.

 

Yup. Air rises.

 

http://realfixesrealfast.com/realfix..._to_bleed.html