Proper Brake Bleeding

[Junkyard Viking]

I figured I would ask this since I plan on changing my pads today and I'd like to do a complete job. Whats the proper way to bleed the brakes?

Can I just open up the valve with a tube connected to the bleeder valve or do I need someone to step on thwe pedal while I am doing this? Should the car be on? I dont know I've never done this before so...can someone explain to me the proper way to bleed my brakes.

This is on my 1999 Grand Am GT.

Hopefully someone can help me out before I get started :).

[LargeFish]

No need to bleed brakes unless you replace the calipers or open the lines for some reason.

[Junkyard Viking]

Well you see the thing is that my brakes and my mother's are VERY spongy. Her's espcially, the brakes grab at a proper distance but the pedal as virtually no feel in it and I hate that. So I figure it's from having to compress the caliper while doing brake jobs. It's progesvily gotten worse every time I change the brakes too. So I am pretty confident that is the problem. Anyway, I dont need to know why you'd do it, just how.

[LargeFish]

OK, Well use the red Search key at the top of the screen. There are a ton of posts on this subject. It's best done with a helper and ideally one of the two should have done it before.

Here's one example:

http://www.gaownersclub.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=26748

[Junkyard Viking]

I had seached but appretnly I missed that thread. Thanks for the heads-up.