[Tomsquad]

Thank you Gubi, the pic explained it all.
Tom

 

[rtalcot]

Another angle on brake bleeding: I had good luck bleeding my S4 one side at at a time. Rigged lines from front and back from brake to a container. This and other threads have discussed a number of approaches but this worked well for me.

 

[Gubi]

You can do it that way, sure. But if you look at how the hydraulics are set up there's no reason doing one side at time would help. Won't hurt, though.

I'm telling you guys: just spend the money on the power bleeder. Buy once, cry once, use it forever. It's absolutely the best and easiest way to do the job.

 

[rtalcot]

You can do it that way, sure. But if you look at how the hydraulics are set up there's no reason doing one side at time would help. Won't hurt, though.

I'm telling you guys: just spend the money on the power bleeder. Buy once, cry once, use it forever. It's absolutely the best and easiest way to do the job.

I know it's counterintuitive but I didn't make it up. This is from the Alfa workshop manual.

 

[Gubi]

Yep, I know, but it's completely unnecessary. I think it's just a holdover in the service manual from the older cars like my '74 thad had the BPDV (brake pressure differential valve) to light the warning light. Though even for those older cars there's really no good reason to do one side at a time, and I never do.

There's zero difference between the S4 hydraulic braking system and any other typical car of the era, you can just bleed it normally one wheel at a time. And the power bleeder makes it super easy to do.

 

[GradBrad]

Speaking of Power Bleeders, this past weekend I replaced my clutch slave cylinder again. (Centerline part lasted 4 months with light use. Thought I'd try CA this time.)

Everything was going smoothly until I started fumbling with the bleeder valve and couldn't get it closed. Poor vision, clumsiness, working at an odd angle, and general stupidity all contributed to my goof. Next thing I know, I had let the reservoir run dry and the slave bleeder started spewing air. Great! I had basically blown all the fluid out of the entire clutch hydraulic system.

No problem. I started over and within 5-10 minutes, I had everything bled properly and no more air in the system. While bleeding, I needed to tap on the master cylinder lightly with a wrench to release the bubbles that were trapped there. Front of the car was on ramps.

Anyway, the bottom line is even with a dry system, the Motive Power Bleeder makes it pretty easy to bleed the clutch hydraulics.