Maintenance and Upkeep Discussion HHR maintenance tips ranging from oil change intervals to brake pads and everything in between.

Bleeding/flushing brake lines

Old 05-01-2011, 10:09 PM
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Bleeding/flushing brake lines

Planning to bleed brakes. Had Chevy mechanic warn me about using pressure bleeder, advised gravity bleeding. Any wisdom on this topic would be appreciated.
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Old 05-01-2011, 10:25 PM
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If you have ABS on your HHR, don't even attempt it, you need to have a scan tool to operate the valves in the brake controller or you will never get it bled. Why do you feel the brakes need bled, are you having issues with the master cylinder, leaking brake lines, etc?
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Old 05-02-2011, 03:37 AM
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Pressure or manual bleeding will work fine. The order is RR, LF, LR, RF.

Originally Posted by 843de
If you have ABS on your HHR, don't even attempt it, you need to have a scan tool to operate the valves in the brake controller or you will never get it bled. Why do you feel the brakes need bled, are you having issues with the master cylinder, leaking brake lines, etc?
The brakes should be bled every other year or more often if you're hard on them.
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Old 05-12-2011, 09:41 PM
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bleeding brakes

Yup,

Panel is right, bleeding that old, wet fluid is just as important as any other maintenance. I'm thinking that you save damage to all of those expensive braking parts for what....$6.00? Then there is the safety factor of having dry fluid that won't boil, it is win-win. You will need a quart of any good brand of DOT3/4 you decide to buy.

The only time that you can get in trouble is when you let air enter the system, do you homework, read up on the procedure, always keep the reservoir full and go for it. Besides, regularly doing this task keeps the bleeders excercised so that they don't seize up and break off.

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Old 05-12-2011, 10:09 PM
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I have an electric vaccuum pump that I use when doing a brake job. Never had a problem with bleeding ABS breaks. Like the others say, just keep an eye on the brake reservoir when doing this job.
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Old 05-15-2011, 08:03 AM
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Piece of cake with the right tools.
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Old 06-01-2011, 09:46 PM
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I'm thinking I should look into bleeding my brakes and putting new fluid in now that I've hit the 5 year 50k mile mark...
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Old 06-08-2014, 09:05 AM
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I just did mine last week (at 100K and 6 years), and it made a huge difference, without really changing anything else. I seem to have had no air, but lots of cruddy-looking fluid that I pushed out.

I did buy some Russell Speed Bleeders and installed them, because my "help" is not always all that effective. I got spoiled when I was doing competitive stuff, too. They are much easier to use once you get used to them.

One other thing I just thought of - is there a clutch bleed point? Never even checked for one... I'll search. Got it: https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/driv...-clutch-45927/
Looks like I'm not quite done...
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