MINI Cooper R50 - R53 Bleeding Your Brakes

Bleeding brakes can be an extremely frustrating job. There seems to be a bit of black magic involved with the bleeding process. Sometimes it will work perfectly, and then other times it seems like you end up with a lot of air in the brake system. The best strategy to follow when bleeding your brakes is to repeat the procedure several times in order to make sure that you have removed all the trapped air from the system

There are currently two popular methods of bleeding the brake system, pressure bleeding, and vacuum bleeding. Pressure bleeding uses a reservoir of brake fluid that has a positive air pressure force placed on the opposite side of the fluid, which forces it into the brake system. Vacuum bleeding is where you fill the reservoir, and then apply a vacuum at the bleeder nipple to pull fluid through the system. In this article we will focus on pressure bleeding.

The first step in bleeding your brakes is to fill the system with brake fluid. I recommend ATE Super Gold (part 706232-M4). One of our favorite tools for pressure bleeding is the Motive Products Bleeder. The system has a hand pump that you can use to pressurize the brake fluid up to 30psi. However, in the case of the MINI, I don't recommend exceeding 15psi as this can cause the reservoir to rupture and probably spray brake fluid everywhere.

A small gauge on the front of the brake fluid reservoir indicates the pressure of the brake fluid inside. The very large reservoir can hold about two quarts of brake fluid: more than enough for most brake flushing and bleeding jobs. Retailing for about $50 online from PelicanParts.com, the bleeder kit is a very useful and cost-effective tool to have in your collection.

The system bleeds by pressurizing a bottle filled with brake fluid from air from an internal hand pump. The procedure is to add fluid, attach the bleeder to the top of the reservoir cap, and pump up the bleeder bottle using the hand pump. This will pressurize the system. Check to make sure that there are no leaks around the bleeder, or where it attaches to the top of the master cylinder reservoir. Make sure that the seal on the inside of the reservoir cap is seated correctly as well.

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