Excessive brake pedal travel after bleeding

[Me9141]

Hi all,


Hope you are all well and staying safe.


I have a 2010 Mk6 Golf 2.0 tdi (standard).


Borrowed a pumped pressure bleeder to deal with the brakes of another car, whilst I had it I thought I would flush the system of my golf too.


1^st time left an ever so slight brake travel before there was any friction, so thought I’d try it again
2^nd time I broke part of the bleeder before I could begin, I ordered a replacement part and installed before the 3^rd attempt
3^rd time has left it with a lot of brake pedal travel


I have given up now and gave the car to a local garage whose work I trust.


They have bled the whole system and abs pump via VCDS and manually. He said about a litre of fluid has passed each corner. So definitely no air in the system now.
This has still left the same amount of travel.


Garage have said they have seen this before with VAG cars. Last one they did on an Audi needed an ABS pump but they have done an Amarok with just the master cylinder. They say this solved this issue in both cases. Have said it would be better to start with master cylinder as its the cheaper option. Have booked it in with them just thought I'd get as much info on this as possible.


Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue and what you have done to rectify.


Any help greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advance.

[Crasher]

I had this last week on a Golf 4 from another garage. All they had done was one rear caliper and they could not get the pedal back with the engine running. We had a look and pressure/VCDS bled it and due to the huge free play came to the conclusion it was the master cylinder. They fitted a new genuine one and it was no better and the free play was still huge. I came to the conclusion it was a very unusual servo failure and a new one cured the problem.

[Roverfan]

I had something similar when i allowed all the fluid to flow out into a container rather than clamp the brake hoses. Repeated bleeding helped bring it back in my case.

I find the pressure bleeder takes too much set up, so i manually bleed using only the bleed hose from the kit and extendable wheel wrench propped up against the seat and pressing down on the pedal for final closure of the nipples. I also visited a very steep road to help draw out air 'if it was stuck in the abs unit', dont know if it was and cant confirm it helped but its something that i always do in such cases.

I suppose in your case you need to work out if something has failed or there is air in the system.

[Crasher]

On the Polo 6R we have found that if air gets into the ABS pump the only way to get the pedal back is to trigger the ABS; with a crap pedal that is easier said than done!