Changing brake fluid

Don't bother.

Along with oil changes, for the piddly amount of money Kwik- Fit/National et al charge, you might as well let them have all the grief of seized up bleed nipples. They also have some nifty kit that pulls it through from the nipple to the reservoir as well. Saves you a knackered master cylinder on some of the more high miler cars.

Oh no it isn't. It might have been when it was new but it won't be now.

See above.

I used the Gunson eezi bleed on mine recently, which did the trick. make sure you don't leave it connected if you remove the brake caliper though ( like I nearly did !)

Very carefully pump out the old fluid, until the master cylinder is almost empty, before topping it up with new - that saves most of the old fluid mixing with the new.

Hopefully the bleed screws will not be seized, but when they are I put a torch on just the tip of the nipple, get it hot then let it cool. That is usually enough to free them off and save rounding them.

Even if it went in the same colour, it will be a different colour after a few years of use.

run it into a ford rapid fit, they only charge thirty quid for the whole job.

Eh? It's a Puggy!

They do any cars as far as I know .

My top tips:

Use a turkey baster to suck most of the old fluid out first.

Use a Gunson's Easibleed, but let the tyre you use down to 10psi.

If you don't use an Easibleed, put a bit of wood under the brake pedal to stop the pedal going all the way to the floor. (If you pump the master cylinder further than it normally goes, you risk damaging its seals.

If your car has a hydraulic clutch, don't forget to do that as well.

Chris

I've seen 250ml quoted as average car braking system capacity. So with a suitable measuring container, bleed through about 1/4 that on each wheel. Or a bit more if you like!

After doing that on an ABS equipped car, you might take it for a drive and activate the ABS, then bleed the brakes again, to make sure of getting new fluid into the ABS pump and pipes. I read that somewhere.

"Mark W" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I'd have thought that was very low, especially by the time you've bled through to clean. Nearer a litre, I'd guess.

And?

Why is it, that in the era of the Cortina, Mk1 Escort, Allegro, Maxi etc that changing brake fluid was not needed unless you did serious work on the brakes? What changed that makes it necessary with modern cars?

Please only reply if you were an adult in the 70's

Mark

Probably cost is part of it. I just asked Pro-tyre to replace steering, coolant and brake fluid. £57. Why get my hands dirty?

It was necessary, but no one did it (at least not till they suffered brake failure either through leakage or brake fade)

I was born in 1946, so hopefully am qualified to answer.

Brake fluid changes were indeed required in the past; in fact, the requirement was more frequent.

The oldest workshop manual I have to hand is for the Mini from 1961-1972. The brake fluid change interval is given as every 18 months, or 24,000, whichever is sooner. Also, every three years or 40,000 miles, all the hydraulic seals and flexible hoses should be replaced!

In point of fact, brake components such as wheel cylinders would often leak before three years was up. By comparison, I replaced the rear wheel cylinders on my Focus at nine years old/92,00 miles as a precaution. Pulling them apart showed the bores and seals to be absolutely perfect.

Chris

Err it was required, otherwise you had to change all the brake cylibders regularly. There again given the rate they ate flexible brake hoses made it slightly moot.

I bought a litre of silicone fluid for my Herald, and half of that completely filled the brake (single circuit, no servo, drums + discs) and clutch systems. Mind you, it all went around about three times while bleeding the system.

Just a data point, but with discs all round, dual circuits and a servo to fill, a litre seems likely.

Of course my /real/ car takes a gallon of brake fluid.

Ian

The Real Doctor gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Thinking about it, I was thinking of the only "normal car" I've changed the fluid on lately - the Saab - which has the clutch on the same reservoir.

I'm not sure the servo's meant to be full of fluid, y'know.

Brake fluid? I don't think so.

Maybe a mix of brake fluid and castor oil, but dragon's blood is more likely...

It's the fluid that works the brakes.

Ian