I've been bleeding brakes on my cars for years and never really thought about this before, even though in hindsight it's pretty obvious, but... pushing all the pistons back in before bleeding helps massively.

I had a spongy pedal on my Brembos for a while and yesterday I decided to remove some of the fluid from the reservoir (with a clean syringe), and push back all the pistons before I bled the system, and wow, what a difference! Try it next time!

 

When I bleed mine as part of a service I also remove the pads to clean them and apply anti-seize grease on the backplate to caliper contact points. When doing this I expel the old fluid through the bleed nipple as I have heard of people damaging seals by forcing the fluid back through the ABS or master cylinder. Everyone has their preferred method and in my opinion if it works for you then good.

 

Aye, even better then, don't want to damage anything!

I'll do it that way next time to in that case.

 

People having issues with the seals is what I have read so cannot say for certain if not another problem. The other thing expelling the fluid out will show if the fluid has been cooked or if there is any contamination in there. A few years ago I swapped to silicon fluid as it is not hydroscopic. I have read reviews both good and bad, personally my experiences are good apart from I always carry a bottle at MOT time as have had to have two pipes repaired so needed to bleed the brakes slightly.