Brake bleed 2003 iABS

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Photoguy
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Brake bleed 2003 iABS

Post by Photoguy »

First off, a thousand thanks to Steve- RadicalR1150R, for his assistance and answering a ton of questions I had. He gave me the confidence to undertake this and provided a lot of input into the process.So as not to be a pest and pepper him with more questions, I thought I'd throw this out to the larger group.

I just finished working my way through the bleed procedure on my 2003 using the document that's floating around. I started by installing speed bleeders to make it easier to do. Procedure was pretty straight forward- step-by-step from start to finish. A few observations:

- My first surprise was that the reservoirs on my unit were a little different than illustrated in the document. Mine didn't have the 'fingers' to indicate max fill and instead had a white 'basket' at the bottom of the hole. (I filled the reservoir to have a liquid sheen just visible in the bottom of that basket, I think that was similar to when I started the procedure).

-Wishing that there was a different color brake fluid available. It was hard to know when enough was enough. My fluid was last changed a year ago and it still looked clear amber color so knowing when the old was gone and the new was in place was difficult. All in all I pushed 48 oz of new fluid through the entire system, so I'm assuming that I replaced most if not all of the old stuff.

-One of my bleeders on the module was stuck. Aargh...It took a little bit of working around to free it- I got a 7mm deep socket to break the hold and then proceeded with a wrench to do the bleed.

Now that the bleed is done I've observed what appears to be a light wet film on the surface of the module. I assume it's brake fluid but not positive, but what else could it be? It's rainy and cold but I don't think it's condensation, but who knows. Maybe. An air hose blast shows a light film moving on the top of the module. I've cleaned it off but it seems to re-appear. I'm reluctant to put the tank back on until I know for sure what this is, and more importantly a remedy. I've re-checked and snugged all of the bleeder nipples but aren't entirely confident that one isn't seeping.

Questions:

Has anyone else that's been through this had any bleeder issues on the module? How tight is tight when snugging them down. I'm reluctant to apply brute force for fear of stripping the threads in the module.

Has anyone replaced the bleeders on the module with speed bleeders? I won't undertake that now, it's getting too cold in the garage but maybe in the future. Just a thought and wondering if it's been done?

As always, appreciate any input!

And thanks again Steve, you da bomb. :D
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peels
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Re: Brake bleed 2003 iABS

Post by peels »

I had some issues.

so I removed the abs system altogether. and I just use the factory bleeders.
2002 R1150R. Helmets save more lives than loud pipes.
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Photoguy
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:29 pm
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Re: Brake bleed 2003 iABS

Post by Photoguy »

Thx peels. I've always thought that if I developed problems I'd investigate removing the abs as it seems the modules are super expensive (if you can find one) and not re-buildable.

Mine is working as it should and to keep it that way was planning on an annual bleed/flush. I put speed bleeders on the 3 brakes but did have a few small issues with the bleeders on the module. When I talked this through with Steve we both thought that speed bleeders on the module might be a good idea and speed up the process a bit. And since I had one bleeder that was a little difficult to open it prompted my question to see if anyone had replaced the stock bleeders with speed bleeders on the module itself.
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