anyone care to enlighten me on how one goes about flushing the fluid from their brakes system? also, how much fluid does the entire brake system hold? i'm looking to change my pads/rotors/fluid this weekend. any help would be greatly appreciated!

1qt of fluid will be fine. To flush the system, just bleed the brakes, until clean fluid comes out. Make sure to go in the correct order.

so keep filling the brake fluid resevoir with new fluid and keep pumping the brakes until the new fluid comes out? is there a way to keep the new fluid from mixing with the old in the resevoir? or is there a way to drain the resevoir, fill it with new brake fluid, and then bleed? damn, am i making any sense? or is my imagination getting the best of me?

I try to suction out some of the old fluid in the resevior. And like eric said, start with the caliper farthest from the MC.

-Mike

IIRC, the Chilton manual says to bleed the brakes in this order:
- driver side rear
- passenger side front
- passenger side rear
- driver side front

Is this the same as the factory service manual?

Good for a read:

http://www.se-r.net/brakes/bleeding_brakes.html

FWIW, Valvoline SynPower DOT3/4 is cheap as water and it works great. A quart is more than enough to do a very liberal flush.

My wife used PS fluid to top off her brakes one time. (luckily it was her POS Tempo) :( So after going through replacing the MC and two calipers as well as bleeding the system thoroughly to fix her mistake, I bought a cheap suction/pump for like $10. It works great for filling the tranny up, you can pull fluid out of a reservoir with it, very usefull tool. I recommend getting one. :) I think JC Whitney has them cheap, but you should be able to find one somewhere local. Or just buy a $.99 baster, although I've found that some fluids attack the rubber and cause it to harden and crack over time.

thanks for the info guys. i'll be doing my brakes this weekend and will probably replace the fluid with either the ford hd or valvoline synpower. both seem like reasonably priced fluids that i won't mind wasting to bleed the car properly.

I usually recommend what tool said. Go to the grocery store and get a turkey baster to remove all the old fluid from the reservior. Fill it up with new fluid and you're ready to start bleeding.

Other tips: I like the Russell speed bleeders. They are bleed screws that replace the stock ones and have a check valve in them that does NOT allow air to go back into the caliper as you bleed. $20 and worth it IMO.

I think I'm going to move away from the Valvoline stuff. I've recently noticed that after almost every event, my pedal is a little spongy, and when I bleed, I get some air out of the system. Doesn't happen with any other fluid. I can't explain it. Another fellow racer told me he experience the same thing and thinks that the Valvoline formulation (this guy's a chemist) allows it to weep slightly from seals when it gets hot. I dunno. I know I'm going back to Motul this weekend and see how it goes.

bummer...i just bought the valvoline synpower. then again, i don't go to the track, so i don't think it'll pose a problem. it's not that i mind the price of motul, but it's just a pain in the ass ordering that stuff online and not know if you need more etc etc. i was gonna use the ford hd dot 3 but according to the specs, the valvoline fluid has better ratings.

if you plan on taking the car to a track event use Motul RBF 600.

we have tried bleeding using the Russel Speed Bleeders and the brakes are not as firm when done the old fashioned way, the other pumps the brake while one opens/closes the valve.

Tevs

Ford caught on and renamed their HD fluid to High Performance fluid. Now they sell the same fluid for three times as much.
I use the Motul and have no complaints.

You can find the Motul locally at Kawasaki dealers and other cycle shops.

Originally posted by Toolapcfan
My wife used PS fluid to top off her brakes one time.dang this one guy kept coming to my shop because he kept mistakenly puitting ps fluid in the brakes! and this happened 3 times! the seals were so swollen, the fluid litterally poured out.

anyways, *** suck out as much old fluid from the reservoir and pour in new fluid and loosen all the bleeder valves on the calipers, by way of gravity, the old brake fluid will drain out while the new fluid fills the system. remember to keep filling the reservoir. the front left caliper will finish flushing first, the right rear will take the longest and you might wanna do the pump and release method several times back there.

as for brake fluid, Motul RBF 600 is absolutely the best! vavoline synpower sucks(from my experience comapred to motul). 2 pint sized bottles should be enough.

With stock brake lines, AD18s, and Kumho V700s, I've never had any pedal fade when lapping with Valvoline Synpower. Your mileage may vary. Motul better? I won't argue with that, but you don't have to buy it if you're not hardcore enough to need it.

bummer...i just bought the valvoline synpower
Not bummer. Valvoline Synpower is great stuff for most of the people reading this, and it's sold cheap at Wal-Mart and most parts stores. Just flush, bleed, and have a dandy time.

What about belray and a couple of those other well named fluids?? Would you choose those before the valvoline?

Ford caught on and renamed their HD fluid to High Performance fluid. Now they sell the same fluid for three times as much.

I only paid $3.98 a bottle at a local Ford dealership...

motul rbf600 cost less than $10 per bottle and you only need 2 bottles....*** buy it, you definately wont regret it!

..looked all over here in the valley..even at a couple bike shops..cant find it, and that leaves online..$9+9+7=$25 shipping..nah..$3.98 a bottle is just fine. Maybe when I throw on a fastbrakes kit, and run track events.then it'll be "worth" it...