Easiest way to bleed/change your Brake fluid

A

AlanL

Senior member
Vancouver, WA
Another option which has worked quite nicely for me through the years (and cars) is the Motive Power Bleeder:

http://www.motiveproducts.com/02bleeders.html

This makes a full brake fluid flush into a simple one person job where you don't have to be frantic about making sure you don't get air into the lines. I have been using mine for the last 6 years now and it has made me a very happy camper. FWIW I do a brake bleed job (not necessarily a full fluid flush) after every track event I participate in and that count is over 80 at this point.

I always fully replace the factory fluid with Motul RBF 600 for any car I am going to take out on the track just to make sure I have fluids that are up to the task once the temperatures start climbing and then bleed off the fluid that has been subjected to those temps after the event is done.
 
i just use one man bleeder from advance auto parts... works well I don't need anybody to do it! and no need to buy separate valves
 
Shipkiller said:
Hook up the catch container, open the Speedbleeder valve and pump the brake peddle (full peddle throw) until I empty out about 3/4's of the fluid from the master cylinder.
Click to expand...
Don't take this the wrong way, as the speedbleeders are a good concept, but full pedal throw can sometimes be bad on older master cylinders. The reason is that the piston in the master moves in and out only a small amount while braking. When you press the pedal to the floor, the piston moves beyond the point it has ever been. If the master cylinder is old there may be a slight ridge warn into the internal bore of the cylinder, which can cause the rubber seal on the piston to tear, causing an external or internal leak. I have observed this more than a few times over my many years wrenching on cars. In some cases the pedal will slowly sink to the floor while sitting still and holding the brake pedal down. Of course the newer the car the less chance of having a ridge built up in the master cylinder. I always use a pressure bleeder, or a suction type bleeder, which I feel is faster anyway since you only need to visit each wheel 1 time instead of 2 times as with the speedbleeder and you never need to get inside the car to pump the brake pedal. Of course it goes without saying "never ever let the master cylinder get low on fluid" sucking in air really sucks :headbang: Don't ask me how I know.
 
And after that, you can clean the insides of your wheels and wax the outsides.
 
Any suggestions for normal, everyday, brake fluid? Only see the reference to Motul in this thread....
 
Shipkiller said:
Yal said:
And after that, you can clean the insides of your wheels and wax the outsides.
Click to expand...

How often do you wax your car?
Click to expand...

It gets a additional coating of Zaino about every two months, usually Z12 and some clear seal. Full clay and re-application of the layers twice a year. I'm not obsessive. I actually do the wheels inside and out every two months as well, but I alternate the months with the Zaino. My wheels are pretty bad as I'm still undoing years of neglect, but they're getting better.
 
AlanL said:
Another option which has worked quite nicely for me through the years (and cars) is the Motive Power Bleeder:

http://www.motiveproducts.com/02bleeders.html

This makes a full brake fluid flush into a simple one person job where you don't have to be frantic about making sure you don't get air into the lines. I have been using mine for the last 6 years now and it has made me a very happy camper. FWIW I do a brake bleed job (not necessarily a full fluid flush) after every track event I participate in and that count is over 80 at this point.

I always fully replace the factory fluid with Motul RBF 600 for any car I am going to take out on the track just to make sure I have fluids that are up to the task once the temperatures start climbing and then bleed off the fluid that has been subjected to those temps after the event is done.
Click to expand...

Hey a bump!
Is this the item that you were referring to way back when? If so, how does it work? Do you attach, build up pressure then go open the lines at the calipers?
 
Yup - is the device and that is exactly how you use it. Since you have brake fluid in the pressure chamber you don't have to worry about getting air into the brake lines while you are flushing out the old stuff at each wheel.
 
Neat, How would you recommend doing a complete flush/change of the system?
Whats the diff between the Power Bleeder kit & the regular bleeder?
Is it just one's a kit and one isn't?
 
Aebous said:
Neat, How would you recommend doing a complete flush/change of the system?
Whats the diff between the Power Bleeder kit & the regular bleeder?
Is it just one's a kit and one isn't?
Click to expand...

Hmm - just looked through the Motive online store and I am not sure what which two models you are describing. When I bought my Motive Bleeder (8 years ago) they had one model called the power bleeder. When I later on needed a new adapter for the screw top of the brake fluid reservoir of a Honda S2000 they sold me an adapter to make it work on a non German car. Now there are a zillion variants on their web site just to do the same thing on lots of different cars.

In general there are 3 variants of how to bleed brakes - devices that connect to the nipple at the wheel and try to mechanically suck the fluid out and ones that pressurize the reservoir to push the fluid out while you open the valve at the wheel. There is always the olde standy of having someone pump the brake pedal while you open the valve at the wheel and hope you don't get air sucked back into the brake line in the process.

The Motive set up is neat because you dump a couple of bottles of brake fluid into the container, screw it down tight on the brake fluid reservoir, and then pump up the pressure. As fluid is flushed out of the brake lines at each wheel it is also replaced in the reservoir so you never get air in the lines. You will find that it almost replaces the fluid in the reservoir faster than you are getting it out at the wheels so you do have to occasionally adjust by laying he Motive bottle on its side in the engine compartment to get a little more air in the top of the reservoir but his is much easier than getting air out of the brake lines once its in there.

Basic directions - do as mentioned above to get a pressurized environment with reserve brake fluid ready and then starting at the rear right wheel drain out lots of fluid. Move next to the left rear and then the front right. Your goal is to end up with about 2 bottles worth of old brake fluid in your drain container by the time you make it to the front driver's wheel.

That's all there is to it......
 
Also, just how much fluid do I need in the pressure chamber? seems to take a lot, I got annoyed with a lack of results and opted to go 2 man method :rofl:
 
1. About 5-10psi is plenty.

2. I usually just dump in a bottle and keep bleeding until it is gone. Brake fluid doesn't really have a useful shelf life once you open the bottle so I just put it all in. If you are trying to replace all of the fluid then use 2 bottles.

3. If you go for the 2 person method be very careful to make sure you close off the bleeder valve while there is pressure in the line so no air gets back into the line.
 
Yep we were good. I got the chamber up to about 10psi, but the tube going to the car's fluid resovior still had air in it....is that normal?
 
No problem - the only problem is when there is no fluid in the reservoir and air goes down into the brake lines.
 
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