Bleeding methods
There are a number of methods for bleeding the brakes. Most are concerned with extracting the air in the brakes via the bleed nipples on the callipers and wheel cylinders, starting with the one that’s furthest from the brake master cylinder.
The most traditional brake bleeding method is to slacken a bleed nipple, gently press the brake pedal and hold it down, then tighten the bleed nipple, release the pedal and repeat. This method is time consuming, but cheap.
A quicker variation of the previous method is to attach a tube onto the end of a bleed nipple and immerse the other end in a container of brake fluid. Slacken the bleed nipple, gently pump the brake pedal several times, then wedge it down and tighten the bleed nipple.
One-man bleed kits are popular and cost around £20. They use air from a tyre (20 psi or less) to pump brake fluid via the reservoir (cannot be used on some reservoirs), allowing you to slacken one bleed nipple at a time and wait for the air to be forced out.
If you have an air compressor, there are some bleed kits that suck the air out via the bleed nipple. These vacuum systems are usually more expensive than the one-man bleed kits (around £40), but can be used on a wider range of cars. If you have replaced a length of brake pipe, then it can sometimes be bled using gravity. Connect the pipe at one end to feed brake fluid from the reservoir. Position the other end so that it’s lower, then wait for the brake fluid to run through. The brakes will still need a final bleed.