Motive Products - 0100 European Power Brake Bleeder Kit

I'm going to do two reviews on this: initial impressions, and impressions in use.All the car nuts reading this know what this tool is for, but maybe you're looking for a gift for a car nut (hint: this would be a really good one) and you're wondering what this is. Follow along.You have hydraulic brakes on your car, and they are fairly simple things: your foot pushes the brake pedal. The brake pedal pushes a piston in the master cylinder. The piston pushes brake fluid into a series of steel tubes and rubber hoses...which are already full of brake fluid. The new fluid pushes old fluid against pistons at the wheels of your car. The pistons push against abrasive pads. The pads push against steel discs that are rotating (because the wheels of your car are bolted to them) and cause them to slow down and, eventually stop. Good so far?All this works great if the only thing in your brake system is brake fluid...but if air gets in there some of the force of your foot will go into compressing the air instead of stopping your car, which gives you longer stopping distances - not what you want. And air looks for ways to get into your brake system. You, therefore, will have to get it out in a process called "bleeding the brakes."There are three basic ways to bleed your brakes.The "classic" way to do it is to stick someone with a very strong right leg in the driver's seat of your car, while you sit beside your car with a box-end wrench on the bleeder valve at the wheel. He pumps then holds the pedal down, and you open the bleeder valve and watch for bubbles. When that one's bubble-free you go to another. This takes forever to do, you go through a lot of brake fluid, and you wind up owing your buddy a lot of beer.Then there's the "vacuum pump" method. It's the same basic thing as the "classic" way but instead of using your formerly best friend, you use a little handheld vacuum pump to suck the bubbles out of your brake system. I've known a lot of people who tried it this way. I don't know anyone who's actually gotten his brakes to bleed this way. The problem is, the vacuum pump pulls air through the minuscule gap between the bleeder valve and the hose you stuck on it.Which brings us to power bleeding, the method every manufacturer recommends. You get a replacement cap for your master cylinder that has a hose sticking out of it. It is plumbed to a tank of brake fluid that's connected to your shop air supply. You hook it all up, hook a hose to a bleeder valve, submerge the other end of the hose in brake fluid, turn on the pressure, crack the bleeder, then stand back and watch all the worn-out fluid, air and crud get shoved out of your brake system, just as pretty as a picture. Which, as you may have guessed, is why manufacturers like pressure bleeding!The only problem with pressure bleeding has pictures of dead presidents on it: they used to cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Then someone must have been in the garden aisle at the hardware store, noticed the pump-up weed sprayer, and realized the same basic device could be used to pressure bleed brakes. Which leads us to the subject of this review.The Motive Power Bleeder is made out of plastic that feels like it's at least 1/4" thick. It has a gauge that seems like it will hold up, a nice-quality air pump, some clear tubing and brass fittings. Included with it is a separate little sack that contains the adapter for your master cylinder, and about a foot of hose to shove over the bleeder valves and dunk in brake fluid. You can't lose the instruction book because it's printed right on the container. In all, a very nice presentation.This comes in several models. The difference is the adapter. If you get the wrong one don't worry, they sell adapters separately.Once my new master cylinder gets here I'll review this thing's performance. The quality of the product, and the other million glowing reviews of this thing, make me hopeful.

Perfect fit for 2004 X5.

I really truly love this device. It is by far both the best and the quickest way to bleed your brakes that I have ever found. I've bought and used every type of bleeder out there, and this style is by far my favorite.I've tried the whole pedal pump method, and let's face it...it sucks. Not only that, but it's actually a good way to kill your master cylinder too! The rod inside the MC is only used to traveling so far, but when you're bleeding your brakes it can easily go too far. It ends up destroying internal seals, and you end up wondering why on earth your brakes won't work anymore no matter what you do.6 months ago I bought a "MityVac"...worst product ever made! Within a few days it was falling apart, and it honestly just never worked all that well to begin with. It actually snapped in half earlier today. I will say that it was better than bleeding your brakes by pumping the pedal, but not by a lot.The only other method I can really highly recommend for brake bleeding is the gravity method. It works wonderfully in almost every situation. I can't say for sure how it works with ABS systems without a scan tool, but it works great in pretty much every normal situation you can think of. The problem, however, is that it takes forever! It's literally a 12-24 hour long process to gravity bleed your brakes. On the plus side, you only need to be there at the beginning and the end, but still...The Power bleeder...requires the absolute least amount of effort, and you can bleed your brakes in like 10 minutes. You fill it up with fluid. You pump up the pressure, and you go around the car cracking each bleeder screw one at a time. The best part? You don't have to keep an eye on the fluid level. You don't have to go add more every few minutes. You don't have to go through a whole setup process at each wheel. You've got pressure going to all 4 wheels, so crack any one of them you like. Actually, you have pressure going to the master cylinder outlets too for that matter! I did a really half...you know what...job of bench bleeding my new master cylinder, but the power bleeder worked just fine with it. I just used the power bleeder to bleed the MC in the car by cracking the line open for a few seconds before moving on to the wheels. It worked great, and I've got a perfectly firm pedal after maybe 10 minutes of work.I can not recommend this product enough!DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON A MITYVAC!!! GET A POWER BLEEDER!!!