Hi guys, I will be looking at fitting new calipers onto my TE in the next few weeks possibly and was wondering whether there is any point bench bleeding the calipers, I did some research and it seems like only the master cylinder will benefit from bench bleeding.

I will bleed them when they are on the car obviously.

Thoughts?

I recently swapped callipers and found in-place gravity bleeding to do the trick nicely. I left the lines attached to the old callipers, wiring them up to the springs, and fitted the new callipers with the bleeders open. Once everything was in place, I removed the line from the old calliper and quickly fitted it to the new one and after a couple of minutes fluid trickled from the bleeders, and I closed them up. Although I pumped the pedal and did a conventional bleed later on, no more air came out, so the gravity method seems to be the go.

there is very little point bench bleeding them, unless you have rebuilt them and they are bone dry - even then it is still questionable as to its benefit.

Thanks guys I appreciate the help, my local wreckers is going to sell me some 380 calipers, rotors, line and pads for $300, nice bargain if you ask me, now Im pretty sure I know the answer but If I only disconnect the front brake lines I only need to bleed to front two calipers starting at the passenger side right? Keeping in mind a full system fluid flush was done recently.

Shouldn't need to bleed the rears unless you lose too much fluid and the reservoir level drops too low. Keep it topped up and minimise fluid loss when swapping the lines and you should be right. I agree that there is little benefit in bench bleeding, especially if assembling with brake fluid as an assembly lubricant. Tip: it's a fairly obvious one but has been botched before - make sure you fit the callipers the right way around, with the bleeders at the top.

Shouldn't need to bleed the rears unless you lose too much fluid and the reservoir level drops too low. Keep it topped up and minimise fluid loss when swapping the lines and you should be right. I agree that there is little benefit in bench bleeding, especially if assembling with brake fluid as an assembly lubricant. Tip: it's a fairly obvious one but has been botched before - make sure you fit the callipers the right way around, with the bleeders at the top.

I would actually suggest bleeding the rears as well, firstly if you have gone to the trouble of doing the fronts you want perfectly clean fluid with absolutely know chance of contaminated fluid in the Master Cyl so bleed the rears until it is real low then carefully top it up and bleed the rears again until real low again, and looks clean, all old fluid will then be gone, I know a little extra time but well worth it in the end, then bleed the fronts. and remember always start at the furthest wheel from the master Cyl note occasionally that may actually mean the RHR on some cars (cant remember in relation to a Magna) check the length of the lines from the T joint which comes from the master cyl! Note these are the silly little tips I was taught by my Master while I was doing my Apprenticeship, most things he taught me I remember real well, Like asking to look at my brand new Proto shifter in 1977 Proto was one of the best tool brands available, he had noticed me using it. I gave it to him and he promptly threw it over the fence into the Shell distributors yard, and then told me to go up to the shell managers office ask if I could get my spanner then get it and walk back thank the manager and come back. He then said while you are walking the half mile to the shell gate the half mile back to get the spanner, and then doing it to return, think about this HOW LONG WOULD IT HAVE TAKEN TO GET THE RIGHT SIZED SPANNER?

It should be noted that this was also in 32 degree Darwin wet season heat and Humidity!

Why the story? Don't do half the job make sure you have clean fluid throughout the system, and extra ten minutes completes the job properly, both making sure its clean without any water or dirt contamination AND no AIR!

remember this you can be charged with Manslaughter if you fix the brakes and they fail shortly thereafter and kill someone!