Trick to bleeding brakes on a 2013 Sentra?

[NC_Overland]

Last year we picked up a 2013 Sentra SR for my fiancée. It’s a good cheap little car, that’s way better than her old 05 Kia Optima death trap that she had when I met her. 70k on it now, one owner, no accidents, clean local car, CVT was replaced by Nissan right before we got it, blah blah blah. I flushed the brakes on it and made a dreaded mistake. I’m stretched too thin these days and was doing too many things at once and I let the fluid get too low in the master cylinder. I’ve bled the brakes three times now and the pedal is way better now, but it’s still too soft in traffic and low speeds like parking. I’m glad I bled the brakes, the old fluid was really dark. I put new brakes on it front and rear when we got it and they worked fine before this. I’m thinking I got air in the ABS pump, but I can’t find an option with the scan tools I’ve borrowed to bleed the ABS pump. I know there are some former mechanics on here.

Are there any tricks to bleeding the air out in that particular car that I’m missing? I did the usual start with the furthest corner and work my way to the left front. I’ve been using a vacuum hand pump kit that normally works well. I’m stumped. I’ve put three liters of new DOT 3 brake fluid through it and now at least the brake fluid is pretty damn clean lol. I’m going to try to get a tech friend of mine to do it in his shop tomorrow, but he’s not a Nissan tech. Anything special about that car we need to do? I don’t want to keep getting the same results. Any advice would be appreciated. TIA.

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[SoCalGlad]

Last year we picked up a 2013 Sentra SR for my fiancée. It’s a good cheap little car, that’s way better than her old 05 Kia Optima death trap that she had when I met her. 70k on it now, one owner, no accidents, clean local car, CVT was replaced by Nissan right before we got it, blah blah blah. I flushed the brakes on it and made a dreaded mistake. I’m stretched too thin these days and was doing too many things at once and I let the fluid get too low in the master cylinder. I’ve bled the brakes three times now and the pedal is way better now, but it’s still too soft in traffic and low speeds like parking. I’m glad I bled the brakes, the old fluid was really dark. I put new brakes on it front and rear when we got it and they worked fine before this. I’m thinking I got air in the ABS pump, but I can’t find an option with the scan tools I’ve borrowed to bleed the ABS pump. I know there are some former mechanics on here.

Are there any tricks to bleeding the air out in that particular car that I’m missing? I did the usual start with the furthest corner and work my way to the left front. I’ve been using a vacuum hand pump kit that normally works well. I’m stumped. I’ve put three liters of new DOT 3 brake fluid through it and now at least the brake fluid is pretty damn clean lol. I’m going to try to get a tech friend of mine to do it in his shop tomorrow, but he’s not a Nissan tech. Anything special about that car we need to do? I don’t want to keep getting the same results. Any advice would be appreciated. TIA.

Hey John!

Just have your tech bleed them like any other car it's pretty simple AND since you have a CVT add a transmission oil cooler, hot temps cook them and why they can be a problem.
Background is Nissan and Mopar on the Racing/Tech side. And the CVT recommendation came from a Nissan factory tech when we were talking about the CVT a while back,

Hope this helps.

 

[NC_Overland]

Hey John!

Just have your tech bleed them like any other car it's pretty simple AND since you have a CVT add a transmission oil cooler, hot temps cook them and why they can be a problem.
Background is Nissan and Mopar on the Racing/Tech side. And the CVT recommendation came from a Nissan factory tech when we were talking about the CVT a while back,

Hope this helps.

I forgot to mention that he already bled them once, I did it once, he bled them and it was better, but still not good. I bled them the other day and they are a lot better, but still not perfect. I was going to have him do it one more time since he has a lot better system, but I wanted to see if there’s something I’ve missed like bleeding the ABS pump so it actually works this time.

I agree on the CVT transmission cooler. It’s been on my list for a while. It’s my understanding that it’s a decent transmission but Nissan used too small of a cooler on it.

 

[NC_Overland]

Hey John!

Just have your tech bleed them like any other car it's pretty simple AND since you have a CVT add a transmission oil cooler, hot temps cook them and why they can be a problem.
Background is Nissan and Mopar on the Racing/Tech side. And the CVT recommendation came from a Nissan factory tech when we were talking about the CVT a while back,

Hope this helps.

I had it power bled today on a professional system. It’s still not right. I read on a Nissan that repair manual that you’re supposed to disconnect power to the ABS module or the negative on the battery cable before bleeding. We haven’t done that. I guess I’ll try again tomorrow and do that. It can’t hurt and it doesn’t take me very long to bleed the system. I can’t believe what a nightmare this has turned into. Also, I miss my Gladiator. I haven’t driven it in a week because I don’t want her driving it till I figure this out.

 

[NC_Overland]

Just in case anyone ever had to work on one of these cars, the procedure in the manual I found online seems to be correct. I followed what that shop manual said to do and it actually worked. Fingers crossed more air doesn’t work it’s way out, but they are great now. I had to disconnect the battery and start from the furthest corner from the master cylinder (RR). Then go back to the closest wheel to the ABS pump (RF) and start from there and go counter clockwise back to the RR. I did each corner twice, the RR ended up being 4 times. Just to be sure, I’m not doing it again.... I put almost 1.5 liters of new fluid through it lol. That sucked, I’ve never bled brakes that many times before. The pedal is nice and firm now and they feel good, but if it gets soft again it’s going to Nissan. Or light a match and walk away lol

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