I thought I would put this info on the forum in the hope it helps others.

A while back I was asking why I could not get the peddle back in my car and a lot of people suggested it was air in the ABS block, to get round this I left the car on a self bleed for a few days (big block of wood on the brake pedal and the drivers side tilted up) to remove the remaning air, this did help rid the system of air but there is still a soft pedal that feels like the master cylinder is starting to fail but not all the time.

I took the original ATE ABS block and started taking it apart and I found 90% of the solenoids where full of brake fluid - now call me dumb but surely the solenoids should be sealed from the brake fluid as this would give erratic feel and affect the operation of the solenoid?

I guess there is one final question which is do any of the Bosch units from the later models fit in place of the Teves ATE units?

Well, you're the first person I've heard that has had a probelm with the ABS unit, other than it having air in it.

You can't bleed air from the abs unit with the pedal as the pressure gets too hgih and it doesn't circulate through the pump properly. You need to bleed t with low pressure or use vagcom to open the internal valves electronically.

Never had a problem with them, but mastercyls are very prone to airlocking and being a pain to bleed,

pushing all the caliper pistons back in fully will usually move any stubburn air thats trapped in the ABS block as will activating the abs on a patch of wet grass or loose gravel.

not sure any ot the Bosch units would be plug and play tho mate.

Thanks lads

On looking at the unit more the solenoids have no seals and are electrically isolated and work by pulling brake fluid into or sealing the chambers they are situated in, the problem is the entry point into each of these chambers is less than a mm diameter so bleeding the air out is not going to work.

The only way to purge the air is to make the solenoids operate so wet country roads here I come!

Cheers

Steve