ok so as some of you may know my moms century has bad brakes. me and my dad are finally addressing the issue now that the doctor says he can after shoulder surgery. it was just going to be a simple replacing of the hoses because the front brakes were grabbing after you drove for awhile, and it was so bad it wore down the left front pads to the metal. this happened to both front brakes on my old neon and it was shrunk hoses. well after replacing those, the bleeder on the driver side was completely seized. i ended up having to put it in a vice and hit it with a hammer to get it un seized. at which point my dad says lets replace the caliper. oh but it will be uneven, lets replace both. $80 later we're back bleeding the brakes. at which point hes getting bubbles (that never stop) but we have a full pedal, and only when we bleed it, its leaking around the bolt where you bolt the line to the caliper. my dad says its the bolt, (which i agree with because he has no strength in his right arm now thanks to the aircast for the past 6 months.) but my grandfather (using his garage) says we need to bleed furthest to closest. which makes sense but my dad says its a split reservoir, thus not necessary to do the back. so basically im "supposed to ask people on the internet" if we need to bleed furthest to closest even though we only touched the front. honestly beyond replacing the discs and pads i have no idea whats going on. i was sent to help them and have been pushed aside as the parts runner and the guy that pushes the brake pedal, im just relaying what they told me lol. (why im kind of annoyed with this post)

we're going back to finish in the morning. thanks alot!

forgot to add, its a 2002 century discs front drums rear, and the rear left wheel cyl is leaking bad according to midas but my dad doesnt trust the whole car to jackstands to thats next. again, not sure why that wasn't first.

The FSM for your car says that anytime the master goes dry, you need to bleed all four corners starting with the furthest and work your way to the closest. The master isn't really a split reservior in the W body of that era. If it looks it...it doesn't function that way.

On that bango bolt that holds the line to the caliper. Slide Gimpy (your dad) out of the way and give that bolt a couple more good hand hits with the wrench on it. It'* probably almost sealed and needs a touch more torque on it.

thanks alot bill! not sure when ill be going over. he is still sleeping and its gonna be 45 for the next few days. im ready but i have a feeling he is gonna play chicken lol. maybe it will bleed itself sitting there haha

Get off your duff and head over. If you finish before he wakes up you'll be the greatest kid.

And yes..you can open a bleeder and they should gravity bleed to a degree.

i could do the front by myself but the rear needs the shoes and the wheelcylnder and i dont know my head from a hole in the ground when it comes to drums, my neon was all disc and so is my buick lol.

my dad on the other hand was piecing cars together since he was 16 so i might wait on him lol.

oh and i just told him that and apparently ive got it all wrong, its leaking around the bleeder, which is the same fix lol

Bleeding them really doesn't require the rears to be swapped.

so now we've hit a snag.... there are the reverse torx bolts on the back of the wheel cyl and i cant figure out how to get them off. a 1/4 closed wrench fits but only about the first 1/16th inch. im afraid to hit them on.

we're tempted to just buy a rebuild kit assuming the cyl isnt scored or anything.

ok so to anyone in the future, its an E-8 socket. now to figure out how to get a wrench on it lol

here are some pics. im not entirely sure how ill go about getting a ratchet on there but if it doesn't work i suppose i can crush the socket in vicegrips and use it as a wrench lol.

this is the right drum. the left one was leaking but everyone/everywhere says replace both.







theres another bolt just on the other side of the brake line you cant even get the socket on without removing the line

Ok..you found the e-torx sockets. Now head back to Sears and pick up a set of their newest wrenches. They fit everything....including e torx.



For the record..I've never seen E torx on those before. Usually they are 8mm hex heads.