Honda Clarity EV Forum

Curious if anyone knows why there are two rounds of bleeding to replace the brake fluid?

1st round is noted as btwn tandem motor cylinder and brake caliper

2nd round is btwn pedal feel simulator and brake caliper

Order: front driver, front passenger, rear passenger, rear driver

Typical two man job you have the end of a clear drain tube submerged in brake fluid in a clear plastic bottle.

1st round is with vehicle ON

Press pedal several times then apply steady force

Loosen screw slowly, pedal will travel to floor hold in position

Tighten bleed screw then can release pedal

Repeat until fluid in tube clear

Repeat with 3 other positions

Turn car OFF wait 3 or more minutes after 3 minutes pass DO NOT OPEN door.

2nd round

Pump pedal several times and then apply steady force

Loosen bleed screw slowly, pedal will travel to floor (hold)

Tighten bleed screw then release pedal

Repeat until clear

Repeat at 3 other positions

To clear CEL:. Turn vehicle ON and press pedal with regular pressure for 3 seconds.

Tightening specs:
8.5 Nm front, 11 Nm rear

I asked my son to help me since he turned in his midterm early today.

I decided to suction out some of the fluid to the minimum line first and fill up with clean fluid.

Then onto the first 1/2 with the engine on. It was really hard to coordinate. (He's 15 and doesn't have a driver's license yet). A lot of times when I cracked open the bleeder screw on the front -EDIT- left (the first caliper to bleed) it felt like nothing came out. Eventually we came to the conclusion that the fluid coming out was clear. Every once in a while I would add fresh brake fluid from the 32 oz Valvoline DOT 3 & 4 bottle. Front right (2nd caliper) took maybe half the time of the 1st. Rear right (the third caliper) was quick. Lastly rear left (4th) was also quick.

Had my son turn off the engine. He sets a timer for 3 minutes on his cell phone. (Not supposed to open a door after the three minutes). After his timer goes off, we start again front left, then front right, rear right, and lastly rear left. (Much easier to coordinate with the engine off). Fluid was clear so it was very quick. Still had some fresh fluid left so flushed more at the rear left until used it up and stopped when fluid level was at maximum. (Kind of used that to verify we didn't stop too early on the other three.)

I turned on the car before putting wheels back on, and hold the brake for over 3 seconds. There were no CEL before not after. I reset the "7" and car says service will be due in 2 months, (the next tire rotation). Put the wheels back on and went for maybe 2 mi round trip car is running well and stopping well.

Notes:. Front bleeder screws are 10 mm. Rear bleeder screws are 11 mm. There is limited space due to the strange caliper shape in the rear. I don't have an offset wrench so used a shorter one that came with a bleeder wrench kit I got this morning. There was black chunky precipitate in the reservoir, quite disturbing there were maybe 5 or 6 of various sizes. I sucked them up using a thing that looks like a giant pipet, (can't think of the name but I bought it to fill batteries with distilled water).

Haha feeling a little hungry in the middle of the night, now I remember what that "pipette" is, aka turkey baster...

Also someone in another forum corrected me, ON Mode is supposed to be only two presses of Power button without depressing the brake pedal. I assumed because there was no warning about potential dead battery that it meant READY mode which means you can shift to D or R and drive off. I haven't been able to confirm or deny this but if you do try this way have something like a charger support the battery.

My apologies if I mislead you.