Somnus

This is probably a general mechanic question but cant get anyone to answer. I have a 99 rx 300. When I first bought it it had been sitting for a year. bringing it home it started shaking like hell. It was the caliper which I replaced. and it had been driving great. Lately after driving for a couple miles it started to shimmy a bit and when i got out the passenger side rear and front wheels were hot. Asked a "mechanic" friend of mine and he said if it was the caliper it would be stuck from the start. and was more likely to be brake hoses. looking on the internet i got the same "vibe" so i bought all four brand new hoses. I changed the passengers side but cannot get fluid from the bleeder. I attached to brake line first then caliper. fluid was leaking pretty good from the brake hose end that attaches to the caliper. got a hose on the bleeder and opened it a turn and a half. I got a hose on the end and the other end in a bottle above the bleeder screw. pumped it 5 times, no fluid in the clear hose. again 5-8 pumps, no fluid, another 10 to 15 pumps and still no fluid. The only thing i can think of is i tightened the banjo bolt to far so the holes don't line up. Is that possible? Not a mechanic but do all my own work. any help would be appreciated

salimshah

I am going to narrow the discussion of unable to get fluid out of the bleeder [lets address this first and then we can talk about stuck calipers/shake etc].

You can unthread the bleeder completely. This would be similar situation as disconnecting the hose at the caliper, except the slave cylinder will fill up. You can practically drain out the master. I have replaced a bleeder valve as it can plug up. When you replace the bleeder make sure you install the rubber cap. If you have an assistant [must for bleeding without special equipment] you can block the drain out by partially pressing the break pedal. The passage in the master cylinder gets blocked to create pressure in the master as you star applying brakes.

Replacing bad and old hoses is a good thing, but I still advise to do evidence based repairs. loosening the hose end should have provided the evidence to a bad hose.

Salim

Australian

I installed new brakes and slotted rotors and then cooked them and stuffed master cylinder as well as seals on calipers basically stuffed everything with contaminated fluid i am now going to have to do a lot of work with new brakes all round and parking shoes master is now working but all warped again. I can't believe dot 3 was something else but everything was flared expanded.