Question

Do you bleed the brakes with the car on or off?

When bleeding the air out of the brakes on a vehicle is the vehicles engine supposed to be running or can you bleed the vehicles brakes with the engine shut off?

Answer 1

I always bleed the brakes on a vehicle with the vehicle off and it works just fine.

Having the vehicles engine on can help make the job easier though as it make it easier to press down on the brake pedal for some people.

You can also get a brake bleeder tool that will allow you to bleed the brakes without assistance.

But to bleed the brakes without the tool you just follow these below steps.

Slide a piece of clear plastic hose over the first bleed screw, and submerge the other end in a container of new brake fluid.

Have someone slowly pump the brake pedal several times, then apply steady pressure.

Then starting at the left-front, loosen the brake bleed screw to allow the air to escape from the system.

Then again have the person pump the brakes again and hold them again while you bleed the other side and repeat until you've bled all the brakes and gotten all the air out of the brake system.