OK, so I'm definitely looking at the right two things. Next part of the question: do these, in fact, use exactly the same part? Either of them use the "S" part?

Clutch - 7100
MC - 7100S

'04 MT

BTW did my first bleeding. Thx to all for your help.

Made a couple of noob errors like not tightening the bleeder fully on one of my wheels. I thought I had it tight enuff and put a decent amount of force so the bleeder felt like it was fully set. Guess I didn't put enuff cuz of concern of over torquing which could cause damage. Carefully I applied additonal torque to stop the leak. For some reason on this wheel the OEM nipple required more force to remove then the other three.

I suggest after you bleed and re-tighten the bleeder, press firmly on your brakes and check for leaks b4 you go to the next wheel. I know, maybe overkill, but it's way easier to access the bleeder with the wheel off.

Now my question. When bleeding the clutch, I think I let the resevoir go down too low. I followed the MC, RR, LR, FR, C, FL, MC order. Now my clutch feels spongey, but to a very slight degree, when changing gears. In neutreal my clutch feels smooth. Brakes feel solid.

I re-bled the clutch again. I did notice very small bubbles, almost like the size of sand granules, in the tube. Ran out of brake fluid. Not sure I got all the small bubbles. Clutch still feels the same.

Should I:

(A) Let it be and see if the spongey feeling goes away? Not sure if this is safe.

(B) Bleed only the clutch again (or clutch & MC)?

(C) Start over and bleed complete system?

When you say you ran out of fluid, how low did you let it go?

The first time bleeding the clutch, I think the resevoir went below the min level, but not completely empty. I think it went below the point where the clutch gets fed if you get what I mean. Added more fluid and continued.

The second time when I ran out of fluid, meant to say my bottle went empty. I kept the resevoir above the 1/2 mark btwn Max & Min. I think I did two runs of refilling the resevoir then 10-15 pumps on the clutch. When I noticed my bottle was getting low I stopped bleeding and kept resevoir at max.

Would it be a waste of time if I only bled the clutch again?

Well I think I've figured it out. I didn't keep the resevoir full enough, sucked air into my clutch. Rebled, went through a couple of litres, and I keep getting tiny little bubbles. The clutch feels better, but not 100% sponge free. I'll continue to rebleed till it goes away as I've read else where you should have no bubbles.

Good thing the synthetic DOT3 by Prestone is on sale at Kragen's ($2.99 per litre). I was recounting my story to the cashier and dude behind me gave out a chuckle...

To all new bleeders ALWAYS KEEP THE RESEVOIR ABOVE MIN LEVEL!

thread revival again. I was thinking about getting these speed bleeders, but i saw that edelbrock makes them. They seem like a bit more reputable company then this speedbleeders.com website.

On the russel website they list
front: 639550
rear: 639560

but nothing for the master cylinder or clutch, i have an 04, so i do have a MC bleeder. Does anyone know the size for the MC or Clutch for russel bleeders?

would it be this one?
RUS-639570

all the info is in the thread if you read it..

and yes the 04 does have a mc bleed valve..

i have the speedbleeders on mine and love them..

i think the part in the speedbleeder world for the clutch and mc was 7100.

beers :beer:

I know i read through the thread and the correct part numbers are listed for speedbleeder.com not russel speed bleeders. I think I got the right ones though. I compared the sizes and hopefully they fit, the front bleeders only differ by 1 mm on the length.

I got the stainless steel ones myself:

1x SB7100-SS for the clutch
2x SB8100-SS for the fronts
2x SB1010-SS for the rears

Will be putting them on tomorrow.

BTW, mentioning the rx8club.com in the comments while ordering still gets you 10% off! :D:

Sorry to bring this back up again! Just want to confirm:

Someone stated that the 7100 vs 7100S for the MC depends on the year of the car but I haven't seen anyone mention the breakdown.

I have an 06 / MT and would like a clarification as to S vs no S.

Satisfied Speed Bleeder user here. Just flushed my system (calipers/clutch/MC) and they worked great. Here's the thing. I only bought the rear caliper bleeders and the bleeders for the clutch slave and the MC. The fronts weren't available at my local parts store. So I was forced to use TeamRX8's method on the front calipers. I have to say, his method was really effective and I probably didn't need the Speed Bleeders on the rear calipers.

However, I would highly recommend them for the MC and the clutch slave cylinder because gravity doesn't help you with these like it does with the calipers. A tip on the MC bleeder: I had to be very careful not to get air sucking back in through the threads when releasing the brake pedal. To remedy this, I only opened the bleeder about 1/8 of a turn and released the pedal (the up-stroke) very, very slowly. The bleeder I used for the MC was the 7100. It is a little long, but seems to work fine aside from the air-sucking issue.

Thanks to all for the great info here. I'm about to replace my pads and rotors and decided to order a set of speed bleeders. But regarding the above statement, why would you have to worry about air getting into the MC, if the bleeders are designed to not let air in? I'm assuming that, if the longer bleeder is to blame, you would ideally use the short version for the MC?

Olorin2 - It could be that the short version is better, but I never used the short one so I can't confirm that. It seems to be an issue with the threads themselves letting the air back in. But I'll clarify - we're only talking about some tiny bubbles here. It could be that this particular bleeder I got didn't get as much thread coating as it should have. Closing it down more and letting the pedal up very slowly seemed to do the trick.

I'll be sure to try that when I do the brakes! Thanks for clarifying!

One other question (until I actually get started)...

When I'm replacing the stock bleeders with the speedbleeders, how much brake fluid am I going to have to deal with coming out, if any? I've never completely taken out a bleeder from a caliper and I'm just not sure what to expect.

This goes for the MC as well... will I get brake fluid spewing from the bleeder hole when I go to replace it with the speedbleeder? If so, what's the best way to deal with it? Just wear gloves and have a catch-can handy?

Thanks again for the help!

Take a disposable rubber/latex glove, and seal it over the brake fluid reservoir. IIRC, I had hardly any fluid spillage while swapping in the new bleeders. I have a 2006 model, however; and do not have a MC bleeder, so I cannot vouch for that one in particular.

Thanks for the tip!

Anyone have input on replacing the MC bleeder and containing the brake fluid?

Yeah, leave the original bleeder there and forget about it, as it is a useless and unnecessary part that has been discontinued on later 8's MC.

Just bleed the system at the 4 wheels..and slave cylinder (clutch).

However, if you put a rubber glove tight over the MC filler tank and seal with a rubber band you will create a vacuum which should stop any BF leaking out if you want to renew the MC Bleeder.

I don't see the point of bleeding the MC only (unless you are replacing the MC) as you still need to do the calipers...so fresh BF is already present in MC by the time you have done one rear wheel.

Thanks ASH... I was wondering why later 8's didn't have the bleeder. I'll concentrate on just doing the calipers. :)

The MC bleeder's there because air can get into the MC. Don't ignore it. Bleed it once before the calipers and then once after. I'm not going to get into a debate with other members about this. I'll just say it's easy to do, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Although the 04/05 model years do have a MC bleed nipple it was value engineered out of follow-on models as not really necessary. The brake/clutch fluid reservoir is at the highest point in the system and ventilated (else how would fluid be added without compromising the system?).

Speedbleaders on the brake calipers and clutch slave cylinder is a great mod tho'.

If you have the MC bleeder, use it both before and after wheel brake bleeding. Just because it was engineered out on later yrs cars doesn't mean it isn't needed in those that have it. It is needed and esp. if you drain the system, like putting in SS lines, NOT bleeding it before and after can seriously degrade brake performance to the point of almost having no brakes.

Huey52, how does 'engineered out' translate into 'not really needed'? Are you simply assuming it's removal means 'not really needed'?

Keep in mind that many early model run vehicles have components that are removed over time as 'value engineering' (aka cost cutting) measures. The downside to buying an early run vehicle is unknown weaknesses, but the upside is that they tend to be over-engineered to preclude some potential issues. This is a case of the latter.

I'm not disagreeing that if you have it you may as well use it, but just commenting that it's not absolutely necessary. The air bubbles will [eventually] rise to the top of the system, just as they do in every other vehicle out there. The flip side is that you can use gravity to bleed your system, but I prefer speedbleeders for peace of mind (and speed of task completion).

edit: In fairness I should add that the designers don't always initially well anticipate the vehicle's range of usage/maintenance, as noted by the [re-] inclusion of the third oil metering injector in the Series II.

It is present on 06 as well :)

And I fully agree... Speedbleeders rock.