It is definitely HTML tags but I didn't put them in directly. I simply used the icons at the top of the text box, to put in tags for italics, and for links.

 

Well, back to the problem: a turkey baster isn't working to remove fluid from the reservoir. I don't know of any syringe that will work either. The reservoir has 3 sections, 2 rear sections, and one front section. By front and rear I am speaking relative to the front and rear of the car. There is a passageway from each of the rear sections to the front section, to allow fluid from the front section to gravitate to the rear sections. Unless you have a very small OD hose, attached to the syringe, less than the standard 1/4 inch ID hose which has a roughly 3/8 inch OD, or a 5 or 6 mm ID hose that has a roughly 7 or 8 mm OD, which is the hose size that is used on bleeder nipples, then the hose won't fit into the passageways between the sections, and won't be able to suck fluid from either of the 2 rear sections.

 

Your goal is open up the bleeder to allow old fluid to exit while adding new fluid to the reservoir, making sure to never let it get so low that air enters the master cylinder.

If you were to actually remove all the old fluid without adding any new fluid, then you'd have to do that "bigger job" GAFIT mentioned... and that is taking out the master cylinder from the Fit and bench bleeding it and then reinstalling it while it's FULL of brake fluid... and that can mean dripping brake fluid all over the place. I know this, because my friend did that when he replaced the master cylinder in his relative's car. This is not something you want to deal with when you don't have to.

Using a turkey baster is only to shorten the time it takes to get new fluid to the first corner you bleed. It's not absolutely necessary to do. Not doing it, only means it takes a few seconds to a minute longer for the whole job, depending on how fast you let fluid exit the bleeder.

For my GE, I just gravity bleed it. Get a tube that fits, pop one end onto the bleeder, run the tube UP/slightly higher than the bleeder then down to a bottle that's lower than the bleeder. Open up the bleeder and then wait by the reservoir as it bleeds, making sure to add fluid before it gets too low. Occasionally look at the tube to see if new fluid comes out (should be clearer than the murky old fluid). Then close the bleeder when that happens and move to the next corner.

 

I bought a brake bleeder kit many years ago, but either I'm not very good with it or it's not very good. It's the vacuum squeeze pump style.

For me, it's easiest to just have the wife sit in the car and push the pedal on my command. We've done it so many times now that we can do all 4 corners on a car, even allowing for time to keep adding fluid to the reservoir, in very little time. Less time than it would take me to mess with the bleeder kit.

The gravity bleed method that Goober suggests sounds like a great way to do the job with less chance of running the MC dry and would allow you to do it alone. I may need to learn than method in case the wife every refuses to help

 

All 4 nipples had an 8 mm hex. Fortunately I did not need penetrating oil. The fronts opened fairly easily with an 8 mm box end wrench. The rears opened very easily. After the initial breaking free and turning back and forth a few times to make sure I had freedom of movement, I snugged closed the screw, removed the hose, removed the box wrench, put the hose back on, and afterwards used an open end wrench. My tubing: I had 1/4 inch ID tubing I think, and smaller ID tubing, I think 4 and 5 mm ID tubing,.Tubing I bought at hardware store and tubing that came with check valve, and with vacuum pump. I'll have to go out and confirm the size. None of them were snug enough to stay on the nipples so I used a tiny plastic ratcheting wire bundle holder as a clamp. I used a vacuum bleeder and had no problem with the front calipers, but at the rear drums I kept getting air through the rear nipples. I eventually gave up and put the wheels back on. The brakes did work better. I guess the old fluid had air or moisture that was compressing and that's why the pedal felt better when I finished. The pedal hadn't felt spongy, but with the new fluid the pedal did not go down as far and felt firmer. I can't tell if the air bubbles were coming from the brake lines, or were being sucked in through brake bleeder nipple's threads. I tried putting grease around the threads but no luck. Constant tiny bubbles rather than occasional large bubbles - which to me suggests air through the threads.I only turned the wrench 1/4 turn. Also the fact that the brakes did not feel spongy when I was finished, suggests that the air was coming in from around the threads. At the rear there is a hex shaped thing on each side of the nipple which makes it hard to get the wrench in there, and hard to get grease in there. I didn't use my check valve method because I was afraid that when I stepped on the brake pedal I might push the hose off of the nipple instead of pushing fluid through the hose, given that the hose was not a snug fit. I didn't have a helper to step on the pedal while I held the tubing on the nipple to make sure it didn't go flying off. I went through about 20 ounces of brake fluid. I had a 32 ounce can and about 3/4 of it was used. The reservoir was never below the bottom line.The fluid always stayed quite well above it.

I did this in roadside parking area in a national forest. About 20 minutes from my apartment building. At 71 years old, the job took me about 6 hours, not including loading my tools from my apartment into my car and – I was exhausted when I was done. Even though I had them on my "bring list" I forgot to bring insect repellant and a broom to sweep away leaves and branches. Had to firmly set the parking brake, take the aluminum-sided 1.5 ton rolling hydraulic jack out of the car, drive the car up onto pieces of 2 by 12 inch lumber (shallow ramps), loosen 16 lug nuts, push the jack's lift pad under the car's front middle lift point, which is way far back about even with the rear of the cars front wheels, jack up the car, and set the front down on 2 jack stands. Pulled out the lumber. Jacked up the rear and set the rear down on jack stands. After pushing fluid out of each nipple I put the wheels back on, dropped the back of the car down, placed the lumber ramps under the front wheels and jacked the front of the car down, then drove the car off of the lumber ramps. Then the hardest part for me to do at 71 years old, tighten 16 lug nuts. Then I had to put all the tools back in the car. I was dead tired and could hardly stand up straight. 10:30 am to 4:30 pm – doesn't include the 20 minute drive each way. Around 3 pm it was about 85 degrees out.

Reason I didn't do only 2 wheels is because I wanted to see what the bleeders looked like at all 4 wheels, and how they functioned at all 4. Next time I'll do just 2 wheels at a time.

About 6 times someone stopped to offer to help! People hiking, biking, and hunting or whatever in the state forest seem very friendly. A few days ago when I tried to work at the empty parking lot where the Toys R Us used to be, a security guard drove over and told me to leave, within minutes of my arrival.

 

I'll gladly pay $150 to a trusted shop to bleed my brakes in exchange for 6 hours of my time...

 

Does anyone know where I can find appropriately tight tubing for the nipples on my 2015 Fit?

2Rismo2 I have only a vague idea how to find a trusted shop but I have a very good idea how to bleed brakes and I know how to continue learning. In short, as time-consuming and difficult as it is for me to bleed the brakes on my car, it would be more time-consuming and difficult to find a trusted shop. I wouldn't even know how to begin.

Maintaining and repairing a vehicle is a well-documented process. I can read books and ask people and easily deduce which answers are reliable and which are written by people who don't know what they are talking about. It is a science. I can try out methods of bleeding and from the evidence of gathered, I can deduce better ways. The way a car works is a practical science. There is no practical science that helps us learn who to trust, or how far. Books with practical, scientific information on which repair shops in my area can be trusted and which cannot, are probably nonexistent. Asking people who to trust can be a useless endeavor. They too often think they know who they can trust but all too often they are basing their views on personality traits, or "gut feelings" about whether they got good care, rather than on actual knowledge of whether someone provided a needed service, at a fair price. Also in play are people's instincts, and intuition, as to which shop is trustworthy. None of those are scientific. For various reasons, those people that actually do know who not to trust are very likely to lie and say such a person can be trusted. They are not likely to do anything like that when it comes to explaining how to do a maintenance or service procedure. If they tried that, it would be obvious to me.

And $150 is a lot of money. Shop likely charges about $90 per hour; my earnings rate from self employment is between $15 and $20 per hour depending upon the type of job. So even if I knew how to find someone I could trust, it obviously pays for me to do it myself.

I might add that I got some needed exercise from tightening the lug nuts. I like accomplishing something while I exercise my muscles, while I help maintain the size of my aging muscles. I don't like just lifting weights or doing push-ups. I've got that mildly sore feeling in my muscles that I know indicates they are getting stronger.

Now that I've gone through the brake bleeding procedure I've learned how to do it better and faster next time. I'll know to bring smaller ID tubing. I'll try a pump-the-brake pedal method on the rears, instead of using a vacuum method. From that experiment, I may be able to learn whether the air I saw using the vacuum method was sucked into the jar via threads around the nipple. My hypothesis, which I can test, is that by pushing the fluid instead of pulling it, air is not likely to be pulled in around the threads. If I bring the right tools, a snugger tube and preferably a helper to press the pedal, and I see less bubbles or none when the fluid is being pushed, that will support my hypothesis. I may only need a helper for one wheel. If I see the tighter tube stays on, I can bleed the other wheel using the check-valve method. If I were to hire someone to bleed the brakes most likely I would not be able to learn this.

 

Yes it was 1/4 inch ID tubing (1/4 inch nominal) from Home Depot that was too large. Also, the slightly narrower ID tubing that came with my vacuum bleeder (which was much softer vinyl by the way), was also too large (it looked to be about 6 mm) and also too large was the 5 mm (5 mm nominal, equates to slightly more than 3/16 inch) tubing (also soft) that came with my "one-man" bleeder with a plastic check valve – that was also too large. I had to use ratcheting wire-ties to hold them on. Does anyone know where I can buy tubing that is a good size for the nipples on my 2015 Fit? 3 mm (5/32 inch)? All 4 nipples were the same size. By the way all 4 bleeder screws required an 8 mm hex wrench to turn them. I was expecting 10 mm on the front brakes. Can't remember where I got that specification, possibly from one of the companies that manufactures speed bleeders, but they were 8 mm like the rear. I didn't completely remove any of them to check the thread diameter and pitch. I suspect the fronts may have had a larger diameter thread than the rears even though the nipple and hex-head were the same size.

The fronts were much harder to loosen than the rears. Don't know if they were torqued tighter or had more corrosion.