Finally Flushed My Brakes

[heyjayman]

I have a couple of Classics, which I try to flush/bleed yearly. As others have mentioned, DOT 3&4 is hydroscopic and readily absorbs moisture.

That’s actually GOOD, assuming you regularly flush/bleed your brakes. That way you won’t have any corrosion within. It’s bad though if you never touch the system and let the moisture build up

I still prefer to flush and bleed the Old Fashioned Way, it helps the neighbor kid likes to work on cars. The vehicles I drive daily, I’ll flush/bleed after the first year of use, then every 2 years, max.

 

[dorkiedoode]

off topic, but how do we flush brake fluid? i mean i seen people bleeding them but never realized how they flushed it. is it just the turkey baster or do we do something else?

 

[Kestas]

It's mostly semantics. Bleeding is flushing are the same. Flushing is when you bleed to remove all the old fluid. Bleeding is sometimes the term used to remove air in the system after service.

 

[Tones]

Ya, flushing is just bleeding till you get clean fluid.

 

[BarkerMan]

How to bleed brakes, do it perfectly and automatically keep the reservoir at the correct level and completely exchange the fluid and not screw up your ABS.

http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/tool...Arrivals&page=1

 

[hi-miler]

Barkerman
Several of those on the market, I personally am drawn to the Mighty Vac and may buy it due to the ability of the vac pump to be turned into a pressure pump.
I've bled/flushed brake systems both ways and prefer the way my mechanic buddy does it now. We take a brake buggy, which has a number of adapters to take the place of the caps of the brake reservoirs, pressurize a tank with approx. 10PSI, and open a valve to let brake fluid into the reservoir. Once we ensure there are no leaks, we go around to each wheel, open the bleeder valves there and let it run until either we see clear fluid or we are sure enough has come through to flush out the old. The level stays the same in the reservoir, the system is always pressurized so no worries about introducing air into the system, and it's controllable. Once we're done we close the valve on the tank, disconnect the system,and remove the absorbent rags that have been strategically placed to protect from any brake fluid drips.
This seems the best to me, just not feasible for the do it yourselfer. Hence the Mighy Vac and pressure at the wheel interspersed with removal of fluid from the reservoir.

 

[BarkerMan]

I think that the vacuum pump in the link which I purchased a couple of years ago is simple, effective, clean and can be done by one person. You don't have to worry about leaks in the engine compartment. I don't like the idea of pressure on the reservoir with brake fluid. I also use one of these for my engine oil and in the case of my cars it gets everything out. I tested it when new and removed the drain plugs and in two of the three never got a drop and in the third there were just several drops.

 

[ThirdeYe]

Would there be any advantage at all to doing a siphon/refill of the reservoir every so often? Or would this create more problems than what it's worth?

 

[Big Jim]

The advantage would be minimal at most. The calipers and wheel cylinders get the heat that degrades brake fluid. There is not much if any migration of brake fluid in the system. Changing the master only does not get the degraded fluid out ot the calipers and wheel cylinders.

 

[hooligan24]

speed bleeders got me addicted to over-maintaining my brake system. I have bleed my brakes probably 6 times in the past year. 2 times were because of a track day, but the rest were because I was bored and the speed bleeders make it too easy