Clutch Bleeding

Does anyone know if the reverse bleeding method shown in this video works on a 2006 Jetta TDI? It looks straight forward, but not sure, if this works for VWs.

https://youtu.be/wdf--suwqw0

Thanks.

I have a couple issues with that video.

1) one can bleed any clutch successfully with the pedal - pain in the rear, because as he says, air wants to go "up", but it can be done. The key is speed.

If you have an assistant, get them to grab the pedal with their hand and push it down with the bleeder open. As soon as the pedal is down, make sure your assistant indicates it is down verbally.
Once down, quickly close the bleeder and instruct your assistant to raise the pedal (by hand) and quickly come back down again. This way, the air will not have a chance to come back up the clutch piping.

Do this a few times successfully, and the air will come out of the system. If you take your time on each pump, yes - the air will be difficult to remove. Do it with speed and it will bleed just fine, just like brakes.

The other issue I have is that he closes the bleeder while there is still air coming out of the master - he should continue until there is no air at all.


Don't get me wrong, I have had some clutches be an absolute pain to get the air out of, but never had one not bleed out successfully - with good communication and speed.

If you do go the reverse bleed route, yes, this setup will work fine for a VW, no better or worse than on a BMW - just make sure the hose is a tight fit on the bleeder nipple.

I would do it the way you suggest, but I have no helper.

Therefore, I want to try it the way shown in the video, because is seems to work for one person. I have the oil can and I got a clear rubbery flex hose. It is 3mm in diameter and already very tight around the nipple of the oil can dispenser. If I can get it that tight on the slave cylinder bleeder valve there is no way air will get in.

However, in the comments to the video on youtube one person wrote the following:
"Useless video!!!!! It does not work for master cylinders of VW group cars and many more. Master clutch cylinder has little valve which closes wen brake pedal press due to pressure in clutch system.That little valve opens when pedal moves back to start position.So if You will pump pressure in system from the bottom that valve is closing holes to the oil tank and NO bubbles coming up.That bleeding air will be stuck in master cylinder. !!! "

That is what worries me a bit. Video title claims it works for VWs, the comment says it doesn't, because of this valve closing the master cylinder. Who is right? I wanna try this method, but don't wanna get stuck in the driveway, because then I will have to call towing to get the car into a shop. Thanks.

Before I start opening the slave cylinder valve connected to an oil can filled with brake fluid through a flex line, just like shown in the video for reverse bleeding the slave cylinder, I thought it might be a good idea to test the oil can by itself for functionality; especially, because in the video the guy had air bubbles all the way 'til he closed the slave valve, which would proof the whole method useless anyway.

So, I tested today the oil can and the silicone hose with brake fluid inside and pumped it into another empty can. What I found out is that my oil can has to be filled up to the top, and mine has the capacity for a whole 12 ounces bottle of Prestone DOT4 fluid, in order to avoid any air bubbles in the line. I think that has to do with the piston of the pump, which consists of two cylinders. The brake fluid level has to stay above the top edge of the lower, bigger cylinder of the oil can piston. I found out that it is essential to take a few pumps into an empty plastic bottle (around 10 pumps), to make sure the air is out of the piston inside the oil can as well as the flex line. After that I had 70-80 pumps of air free brake fluid. When the level of fluid dropped below half of the can, or ca. 6 ounces, the piston drew air and air bubbles appeared in the flex line. So that's that.

However, I still don't know whether this reverse bleeding method will actually work on my 2006 MKV Jetta TDI slave cylinder. As mentioned in the previous post, one guy claims that there is a pressure valve which closes the master cylinder and renders the whole concept useless, because you won't be able to pump any fluid into the master cylinder and fill up the tank. Does anyone know, if that's true. Or, has anyone tried the reverse bleeding method to get air out of the clutch? Thank you.

I haven't done it on a 2006 but it works fine on older VW's. I did mine that way a few months ago.

Sent from my LG-H873 using Tapatalk

Anyone done reverse bleeding the clutch on a 2006 TDI, though? I just wanna' be sure...Thanks.

Yes it works

I just finished an auto to manual conversion on a 2005 TDI Passat and used the method. At first I did not have the bleeder valve open sufficiently but once i realized it worked. I pump about a half of oiling can thru it, locked the bleeder and was done.

You guys may want to note, in reference to some of the above, that the only component shared with the brake system is the reservoir, which is not pressurized. The only way the brakes could affect bleeding the clutch is if one of these drains enough fluid that the other runs out and sucks air into the master as well. The quote alluding to a magic valve expresses only the lack of knowledge and critical thinking ability of the quoted person (too easily found on the internet).

Cheers,

PH

Thank you for the responses. Thank you Simonbee.
Simonbee, how much of brakefluid did you take out of the reservoir? I bought a turkey baster for that purpose.

mityvac is magic on a 02J slave cylinder... as soon as fluid hits the cup it's bled.... done well over 100 and can bleed a clutch in less than a minute ... one thing to watch out for... steel bleeder screws? just crack em' ... plastic bleeder screws? minimum one full turn out ... also pedal UP not down on the floor!

2006 VW Jetta TDI MKV reverse clutch bleed

Today I tried the reverse bleeding method on the slave to no avail. Took out some brake fluid out of the reservoir (ca. 6 ounces), it was pitch black. I hooked up the oil can filled with fresh fluid and connected it to the nozzle of the bleeding valve/screw of the slave cylinder with a zip tie around the line. I pumped almost an entire bottle of break fluid, 12 ounces, but most of it went sideways and not into the reservoir. I tried opening the valve screw half a turn, one full turn, and even more and nothing would work. The pressure in the line was so high that eventually the fluid would go sideways and not a drop into the master reservoir.
So now I'm thinkin' maybe reverse bleeding does not work after all on my vehicle. Clutch pedal is still sticky in reverse and 1st gear. I tried this on a 2006 VW Jetta TDI MK V. Thanks.

Now I wonder, if maybe my slave is going bad; although, externally it looked all in good shape. I came across some posts which state that it might leak internally, which would explain why there is no loss of brake fluid in the master reservoir.

Slave cylinders cant leak internally. If they leak, fluid comes out.

Thanks Windex. I tried to reverse bleed the slave and no fluid made it to the master reservoir. There are no visible leaks, fluid level in the reservoir remains constant. What could be wrong? Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

Since the reverse bleeding did not work for me for whatever reason, 'wanna try to bleed the slave by just pressing the clutch pedal. In one post on here a guy says it can be done just by yourself. The only disadvantage, as he writes, the bleeder has to be closed each time before pulling up the clutch pedal and making sure MC reservoir does not drop below fill line. Is this something I could try to get the pedal firm again. Thanks.

i can't help but am swapping mtdi into mk2 and decided to go with a bolt on aftermarket setup for the hydro clutch. im starting with all new parts and need to bleed the brakes and clutch system, my first time messing with these hydro clutches. i was just blindly going to use the motiv system, it worked great on last mk2 brake setup i did. i'm lazy in certain ways i guess but will revisit if it doesn't work.

as a newbie to these hydro clutches how am i going to know things are working once i bleed all the air out?

clutch pedal should be firm and come back up without any issues.

ok i spent 10 minutes with the motiv bleeder and a few passes before air stopped spurting pockets and now it seems to flow constant. i installed all parts dry.

i can press the pedal down real easy and it springs back up to top when i let off so im guessing i am good?

how can i make sure the tranny side is working right, i can't drive the car now its on a lift.

The only real way to test is to start the engine with the wheels on the ground as shift into gear - if the car shifts into gear effectively, the clutch is releasing and the hydraulics are working properly (bled properly).

Windex said:

The only real way to test is to start the engine with the wheels on the ground as shift into gear - if the car shifts into gear effectively, the clutch is releasing and the hydraulics are working properly (bled properly).

Click to expand...

i got the car off the lift and and was testing, the clutch seems to be releasing pretty soon after i start pressing the pedal and i could then push the car around while in gear, let off and car would stop.

so it looks like my power bleed was a success and rather quick. and i was lazy by doing it dry. maybe that isn't smart but i could have sworn i was told i could do it that way when buying the motiv bleeder.

When i connected the reservoir to the master cylinder i drained about half the reservoir. I pumped about half a cup I guess of break fluid into the system. It actually overflowed and made a mess. I had no cap on the reservoir while i did the process. I believe if you open the bleeder you should have fluid running out of it and should eventually drain all the fluid out of the reservoir. Make sure your bleeder has a hole in it. (Longitudinal and lateral). I installed a stage 3 clutch it requires 20% more force. I have no problem feeling that it is activating the pressure plate. I also not familiar with the Jetta clutch system I would assume it is similar.