Well I took the wheels off the little woman's 2006 Mini and found the reason she had a pulsing pedal was some warped rear rotors. When I replaced the rotors and pads last time I had trouble with the big wire caliper spring being frozen into the calipers so I decided to get new calipers as well. The job went pretty smoothly and I had my son help me bleed the brakes the old fashioned way. The pedal was pretty soft so I decided to spring for a pressure bleeder to follow the Bentley manual's directions. I did get a few bubbles out when I used the pressure bleeder but the pedal is still not firm. The brakes have been pumped enough now that the pistons and shoes are out and in contact with the rotors. Bentley warns that a special (DIS) tool is required to bleed the brakes but I can't see anything unusual at the back end of this Mini that would require anything different than I've been doing for the last 35 years when it came to bleeding brakes. Am I missing something or should I just go out and look for some more bubbles? Thanks.

 

You didn't say if you let the system drain. If you did, you may have air in the ABS part. From other posts, I understand that the only way to clear the ABS is to make it actuate (like on a wet road) or take it to someone who has the tools to make it cycle in place.

 

I was actually surprised at how little fluid I lost while I was swapping the old & new calipers. I haven't taken the front wheels off to check for air in those lines since I didn't disturb those but may try that just to be sure. I was also surprised at how slowly fliud came out of the bleeders when I had the power bleeder hooked up to the master cylinder. I once changed fluid on a ford truck just by opening one bleeder at a time and waiting until clear fluid came out, close, and move to the next, always making sure the reservoir stayed topped up. This is obviously a different system...

 

There isn't much fluid in the system, no surprise there, but when I hook my pressure bleeder, I only go to 10 PSI or less--that's plenty to drain it fast; if you're needing a ton of pressure, something is wrong somewhere. I could do it by gravity, but the pressure bleeder makes it easy.

I'd try all four corners and see what happens. I'm wondering if something is wrong in the system somewhere if its bleeding slow with the pressure bleeder.

 

I use 15 psi on mine and the right rear on both my 2007 and 2012 would bleed slowly. It was a little faster with the left rear, faster yet with right front and fastest with left front. My guess is that it is resistance associated with difference in the lengths of the lines.

But as CCT1 said...there is not much in these lines and fluid may have drained from further up the line than you think. You should bleed the rest of the system.