The Europa Side - Brake Bleeding |
By Don Nester
Chapman Report – April 1979
After going through a total engine rebuild and a body repair experience that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, I thought that I would have exhausted my supply of experiences to write about. Not so with a Lotus! A Lotus will always provide experiences to share with your fellow Lotus owners.
During the repair of the accident damage to my car, I had to remove a brake line which required bleeding the brakes. Not reading the shop manual, I proceeded to bleed the brakes as with a normal car. This caused the brake fail mechanism to be activated. After reading the manual, I followed the procedure to correct the situation… Then after a lot of spent brake fluid, four letter words and several rereadings of the shop manual, I gave up and pulled the wires off the brake failure switch. (After all, the car was still driveable). At this point I was resigned to the fact that I would have to disassemble the switch and manually recenter the valve which would turn off the brake warning switch. After considering the problem for a significant period of time and pondering several possible alternatives, I developed the following corrective procedure:
After bleeding the brakes using standard techniques (which I recommend) the brake failure warning light will be lit. This is a result of a pressure differential between the front and rear brakes which causes the brake failure valve to be forced to the failure side (front or rear brakes), which causes the brake failure switch to be activated. The recentering of this valve (ie. Turning off the brake failure switch) may be accomplished through the following procedure: