My cars brakes are ok, but I need to push pretty hard on the pedal to get them to work. What do I need to do, I was gonna start with bleeding them, how do I do this? Can I bleed the ABS, I heard that is is self bleeding? If I bleed them and they don't get any better what is it likely to be that is causing the sponginess?

id like to know also as mine has been spongy since i bought it, and it has decent pads an slotted and drilled rotors.

You need to bleed all the air out of your brake fluid. Whoever told you that abs is self bleeding is full of s**t, that sentence doesn't even make sense. Basically you need to pull the wheel off, open the bleeder valve on the brakes and get someone in the car to pump the pedal until fluid spurts out then close to valve off on it. Repeat on all four wheels as necessary.

In order as well not just randomly bleed all wheels.

Can anyone remember the order in which to bleed all wheels?

didn't think there was an order....but anyway what you needa do is.

open your brake fluid reservoir...and suck out most of the old fluid, not all of it, because then you will just get more air in your lines. fill up the reservoir with new (clean) fluid.

open one of the bleed valves on your calliper (10mm ring spanner), and stick a small bit of hose over the nipple. run the hose into a container of some sort.

while you hold the hose on, get someone in the car to pump the brake pedal. watch the fluid coming out of the hose. it should be dirty. wait until the fluid coming out is clean (new stuff) and then WHILE the person is pumping down on the pedal, quickly do up the bleed valve with the ring spanner, which you leave on while bleeding. if you wait until they have pumped the entire pedal, you will get air in your lines, so it's VITAL to do up the valve while they're in the middle of pressing down on the brake.

top up your reservoir with more new fluid, and repeat for the other 4 wheels. after this is done, top up your reservoir, and you're done. hope this helps.

bleeding mine made no difference

then your pads are probably gone. either that, or your master brake cylinder has a leak in it. is there a wet mark around the big plastic thing attached to the master cylinder?

I've always bled the furthest to the closest from the reservoir
IE: RL/RR/FL/FR

Also theres no such thing as 'self bleeding' (in falcons) BUT the person may have implied that the ABS bleeds itself when you bleed the brakes. eg, flushes the lines.

YET: I don't know if the best order to bleed a ABS equipped car would be as above. I'd probably choose RR/RL/FR/FL as the abs module is on the passenger front!.

personally i don't think it makes a difference. I just for the default way i was taught. (I use about 300ml on each wheel to make sure i have new fluid)

top order is correct

its worth getting the system 'pressure bled'

this fixed my spongy brake pedal. basicaly the bleed is done under pressure to get rid of all the fluid. worked really well...oh and use good fluid

You might have to check the caliper slides, make sure they are free to move. The Master cyl can bypass internally, giving a spongy pedal too, without external leaks visable. If the system has been abused ( no fluid change in 7yrs ), then the system will need bleeding a few times over the next 12mths, because the new fluid will lift off the scale/scum in the system.

yeah forgot to mention the slides too.....mine has to be moved with a chisel and hammer they were that gummed up

Costs about 40 bucks to bleed them with the pressure thingy, cant beat it.

my pads are fine, as they were replaced bout 2 months ago and no visible leaks, last time i checked

Did they/you check how free the caliper slides were to move?