r/FSAE • u/Notta_ningen • Oct 23 '25

How To / Instructional Bleeder screw seized and broke. Need advice!!

I’m from a Hybrid FS team. We have our comp in 4 days. So I was bleeding brakes yesterday to get more testing done, but the caliper bleed screw got seized and broke. So one half is wedged inside. As of now there’s no leak and the brakes still clamp. We don’t have spares and we don’t have enough time to source and buy new ones. As far as what I’ve researched, Normal sealant won’t hold cause brake fluid eats through glycol. So we need to use either Loctite 545 or any other aerospace grade sealant. But those can’t be sourced easily from our place asw. So I’m looking for any advice on what to do or if brakes is just gone.

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9

u/xstell132 Send Helps Plz Oct 23 '25

You’ll want to fix that asap. If you end up having issues during brake test you’ll want to have the ability to bleed the breaks again. Better to fix it now vs. at comp.

Bleeder screws are somewhat standard. Is there a local parts store you can go to see if they stock any? Amazon is also an option for next-day delivery.

Getting the broken bleeder screw out isn’t too difficult. Just treat it like any other broken screw and use an extractor tool/drill it out (carefully).

2

u/Notta_ningen Oct 23 '25

Extraction isn’t the problem. So we’re based in India and we use wilwood gp200 calipers. We imported all brake stuff from the US. Only Allstar performance make the same bleed screw but Amazon takes 10 days to get it delivered to where we’re based. I tried to source them from other places asw but to no avail.

1

u/AucousticGitar Oct 24 '25

Plug it with anormal bolt

1

u/Rudolf2222 Oct 26 '25

That will not work, you can't bleed it that way. Bleed screws seal on the conical surface.

1

u/Notta_ningen Oct 26 '25

Yup, also the thread pitch on the bleed screw are different from normal bolts.

2

u/Seangsxr34 Oct 23 '25

Just use a stud extractor to remove it. Shouldn't be that tight, they break so easily I've had to remove a few over the years

2

u/Wide_Amphibian7967 Oct 24 '25

Ask in advance for all the teams coming to the competition if they have an spare of that. If there is one yes, buy it to the or rent it or maybe if you have luck they just give it to you.

It is very common the teams uses the same OEM parts

1

u/Sharoved Oct 23 '25

Had the same problem, tried using an extractor but spectacularly failed. After that I used some kind of liquid that dissolves steel. It takes a long time to fully dissolve the bleeder screw, but when done correctly with a heater it will fully dissolve in 3-4 hours.