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[BazaJT]

Starting this instead of cluttering the "what have you done.."thread any more.
Story so far. N/s/r caliper seized[new one bought] removing old caliper resulted in caliper to flexi hose brake pipe snapping and also end of that pipe not coming out of end of flexi hose,so new parts bought and fitted.Bleeding the brakes in the normal way resulted-after several hours of trying -in a trickle of fluid from the bleed nipple and a brake pedal only just off the floor.Next visit to the car and the brake pedal went to the floor and no fluid would come out of the bleed nipple or the brake pipe at the caliper Pressure bleeder purchased which resulted in reservoir filling up and pressure forcing fluid back out of reservoir but none at caliper end >:(Master cylinder seems to be working correctly so either air is trapped in abs unit or the unit is fubar.I've yet to try reverse bleeding.If air is trapped in abs how do I get it out[assuming reverse bleeding doesn't do it]? If I need a replacement abs unit do all the numbers etc have to match and how do I make sure no air gets trapped in that when swapping them over? I have seen 3 used ones on e-bay,one from a 3.2 one from a 2.0 and one from a 2.2 diesel,while they look the same as mine[at least the 3.2 one and the diesel one do]the numbers and two big letters on the top are different.

[BazaJT]

Forgot to mention my car is a year 2000 face lift 3.0 Elite auto saloon.

[Andy H]

Not a direct answer to your question but.... could the problem be the new caliper or flex pipe or hard pipe on the rear trailing arm? Did the hard pipe twist or kink in the fight to dismantle it?
If you slacken the flex pipe can you pump fluid through?

I think you need an ABS from a V6 (2.5 or 3.0). IIRC the 4 pots don't have traction control, the 2.5/3.0 V6s have 3 channel ABS with basic traction control and the later V6s have 4 channel ABS with a more advanced traction control.

TB should be able to give you the answer re the ABS module.

[Doctor Gollum]

Firstly, Andy is correct re the ABS differences.

However, it sounds like you need a Tech 2 or decent alternative to run the ABS as the brakes are bled.

Swapping out the ABS unit won't change this, as the new one is guaranteed to be full of air, and depending on how it has been stored, probably corroded inside (it's aluminium after all).

You should start furthest point from the reservoir and work back... So Nsr, Osr, Nsf, Osf. Although some sugest to treat the ABS as the 'reservoir' giving Osr, Nsr, Osf, Nsf.

Either way, I would try the following.

Open the cap, ensure that the reservoir is topped up, completely remove each bleed nipple in turn, slowly pump the pedal by hand a couple of times and refit the bled nipple. Once you have done this on all four wheels, you will hopefully have fluid at all four corners and can then bleed it normally. 

[Andy H]

A final point - the 3 channel ABS presumably has one channel each for the front wheels with both back wheels on the third channel. Following that logic - if you can get fluid out of one rear caliper then it can't be the ABS - it has to be something basic like a crushed pipe (metal or flexi).
NB - this is just a theory but I would have a good hard look at the bits I had worked on before considering trying to change the ABS.

[BazaJT]

Thanks for the pointers chaps For AndyH my car has the 4 channel abs[sorry should have mentioned that earlier!] DG I've always bled brakes going furthest to nearest[to the master cylinder]so o/s/r n/s/r o/s/f n/s/f but I se according to the gospel of St.Haynes they say with the 4 channel abs the order should be n/s/r o/s/f o/s/r n/s/r any thoughts on that?
A little progress today[before I've had to come home to get ready for hospital appointment] wedging brake pedal down I cracked off unions on abs and got some air bubbles along with fluid out of a couple of those.Then I disconnected the front to rear brake pipe from the flexi pipe and pumped the brake pedal until I got some fluid coming out of the pipe[which I didn't have before]then after reconnecting that disconnected brake pipe from caliper and repeated pumping until I got brake fluid there also then repeated at bleed nipple until fluid came out of there too,so I'm now more hopeful that bleeding it properly at the weekend[weather permitting] I'll get at least enough of a pedal to be able to drive it to a garage I use for MoT and they can then get any remaining air out of the system.meanwhile I've left brake pedal wedged down.

[Doctor Gollum]

Perhaps you simply had ALOT more air in it than you had realised...

Certainly sounds like you're making progress with it. 

[cam.in.head]

you should be able to bleed the system without having to activate the abs block surely.if the abs unit goes faulty the rear brakes still work so the valves must remain open when not powered so should be open when not faulty also.
replaced rear pipes on mine (2.6/2003yr) and my brothers (2.5/2000 yr)and had no issues bleeding .i did use a vacuum pump thou rather than the pedal or pressure.