Brownish/Blackish Brake Fluid

[Joshu]

As the title says, I think I may need to flush out/bleed my brakes. After reading other threads about this, can I just do the two man system myself when it comes to bleeding the brakes? Like get out, pump the pedal, and release the thing near the caliper. Speaking of which, what am I looking for to release the fluid on the brakes? Lastly, is there a fluid I can use to flush out the system? There is like a black layer of gunk laying on the bottom of the resovior. Thanks!!!

[RangerBob]

You need to follow the procedure in the manual or you will end up with air in the lines and a malfunctioning ABS system. Do a search for it.

[Joshu]

Update: I took some of the fluid out with a turkey baster from the resevior. It is JET BLACK with tiny particles floating around. Ya i think this needs flushed out!

[RangerBob]

Good write up here:

Brake maintenance

[Joshu]

Thanks Bob, that sounds like what I will do this weekend.
I Appreciate the help!

[ConElite]

Yeah Flush it out. JUst have have a buddy pump the peddle and you open the bleeder. Its very very simple. When I did mine All the fluid that came out was Green. ha ha ha ha.

[ToplessFormula]

Gravity bleeding is the best way to bleed the system. Ask any high performance brake company.

[Joshu]

Gravity bleeding is the best way to bleed the system. Ask any high performance brake company.

Care to elaborate on gravity bleeding?

[ConElite]

I think what he means by that is simply open the res. and open the bleeders. Then let it drain out. It will slowly but from my 10+ years of working on cars, not to many people do this do to that the bubbles can get lodged in a crevis in the system and not go out. I recommend just going old fashion. Pump, pump, pump, and hold then just open one of the bleeders and close.

[MN6WS6]

A couple of other options here. You can buy the one way bleeder valves from the parts store and put them on your calipers. Then you just break them loose, attach hoses to a bucket, and pump to your hearts content, making sure the reservoir doesn't go dry. This pumps out the old fluid and the one way valves do not allow air to go in when you let off the pedal. It makes it suck fluid from the reservoir.

Secondly, you can buy one of those handheld pumps for like $20 or $30 and hand pump them out at each caliper.

The option I took was to have a shop do it. At my dealership, we have a machine that attaches to all four calipers at the same time. As it's sucking the old fluid out, it pumps new fluid into the reservoir. It will use an entire quart of fluid to make sure it gets everything out and replaced. I've had this done to my Firebird and my Astro and it makes a world of difference. It retails at about $100 and takes about 20 minutes or so to complete.

[ToplessFormula]

I think what he means by that is simply open the res. and open the bleeders. Then let it drain out. It will slowly but from my 10+ years of working on cars, not to many people do this do to that the bubbles can get lodged in a crevis in the system and not go out. I recommend just going old fashion. Pump, pump, pump, and hold then just open one of the bleeders and close.

Exactly.

Gravity bleeding is opening the bleeders and allowing the fluid to carry the air out with the old fluid. You just have to keep the master cylinder full.

You can recommend using the old fashion way all that you want. It's not as effective though.

Not many people do this because that aren't aware that it's better than pump bleeding the brakes.

The pumping method can also lead to master cylinder problems. You will be pushing to master cylinder piston farther into the bore than it normally does. As the bore wears it will develop a ridge at the end of the normal travel range. When you perform the pump and bleed method this can lead to master cylinder damage. It's not common, but isn't unusual either.

I know for a fact that SSBC recommends gravity bleeding. Like I stated before, ask any performance brake manufacturer. They'll tell you exactly the same thing.

Here's some links that I found:

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/grav...kes-81243.html

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forum...he-brakes.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=qHH...S5s4#PPA147,M1

http://www.tsmmfg.com/Troubleshooting.htm

[Joshu]

Thanks for all the help guys, where are the bleeders located for the gravity method?

[ToplessFormula]

Thanks for all the help guys, where are the bleeders located for the gravity method?

You just use the normal brake bleeders on the calipers and wheel cylinders (for drum brakes).