The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

What is your favorite brake fluid replacement strategy?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Hello Forums! First time poster here. I bought my 2013 Race Red #2729 in February. This Saturday my son and I are leaving for Utah for the Boss Track Attack next Monday and Tuesday. When I get back I'm going to be ready to start taking my boss to track days and as such I'm going to change out the brake fluid for ATE Dot4. I know there are a lot of options when it comes to changing the fluid and I'm looking for input on the best way to do it.

I am leaning towards going this direction:

http://www.amazon.com/Mityvac-MITMV6835-Vacuum-Brake-Bleeding/dp/B002XMUC3S/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=5QZHCVQ3DZY&coliid=IQ6UXIG0BIEFT

Thoughts? Advice?
 
Just flushed mine with fresh Super Blue this weekend. I do it the old fashioned way. My son was home for spring break and was thrilled to man the brake pedal ;D (Instead of "are we there yet" all I heard was "are we done yet")
 
1,281
3
Tulsa, OK
^ These guys know; do it the old-fashioned way :). After changing lines I used several different power/pressure bleeders and I still had air in the lines. Doing it the old school way cleared all the air out of the system for me.
 
I tried the Motive power bleeder this weekend and nothing came out, even though I had the pressure up. The old fashion way works every time and it's straight forward, as long as you have a brake man. If not rig up a pogo stick or the o'l tube in a jar.
 
Thanks for the input guys. Believe it or not I've never done this before. Anyone have a link to a good write up that explains the "old school way" step by step?
 
Did mine the old fashioned way and got air in the line. The rear corner of the reservoir has some plastic wall that can trap fluid and my brother looked through the top at an angle, saw fluid half way up and said, "yea, we have plenty". Then all of a sudden: "the last few pumps were kinda easy, what does that mean?". DOH! So don't do it at night when visibility is low and make sure your pedal pumper watches the reservoir carefully. I wish they would use a clearer plastic on those things.
 
akazanar said:
Thanks for the input guys. Believe it or not I've never done this before. Anyone have a link to a good write up that explains the "old school way" step by step?

Good communication is the key. First remove as much old fliud from the master cylinder as possible, use a turkey baster or something like a spray nozzle off a windex bottle. Remember to fill the master back up while doing the steps below, check it often when you start, after a while you will learn when more is needed.

One person in the car steps on the brake pedal, give it a couple of pumps then hold pressure. Another guy at the RR wheel opens the bleeder (best to attach a clear tube to some kind of catch can or drain pan) guy in the car says when the pedal is on the floor, guy at the wheel closes the bleeder and tell car guy he can let off the pedal. Repeat until the fluid is clean looking coming out.

If you use a Dot 4 fluid like super blue you can see a color difference, otherwise you should be able to see the new fluid coming out as clearer then the old fluid that has moisture in it. About one quart will flush the entire system.

Next move to the LR wheel do the same then the RF wheel and last the LF wheel. Each time you will have to flush less as the fluid has traveled through the lines and the points are closer to the master cylinder. On the front caliper there are two bleeder screws, do the inside one first, two or three pumps is fine then continue with the outer bleeder until the fluid is fresh.

Little tip for a nice firm brake pedal. When you are at the point of seeing fresh clean fluid coming out have the person in the car pump up the pedal a few time and hold it down with extra force. The person at the wheel can open the bleeder screw just a little, quarter turn, the pedal will move slowly down. When the pedal is at the half way down point the person in the car will say so and then close the bleeder at the wheel. Works great for me every time.
 
2,198
1,065
Bay Area
akazanar said:
Hello Forums! First time poster here. I bought my 2013 Race Red #2729 in February. This Saturday my son and I are leaving for Utah for the Boss Track Attack next Monday and Tuesday. When I get back I'm going to be ready to start taking my boss to track days and as such I'm going to change out the brake fluid for ATE Dot4. I know there are a lot of options when it comes to changing the fluid and I'm looking for input on the best way to do it.

I am leaning towards going this direction:

http://www.amazon.com/Mityvac-MITMV6835-Vacuum-Brake-Bleeding/dp/B002XMUC3S/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=5QZHCVQ3DZY&coliid=IQ6UXIG0BIEFT

Thoughts? Advice?

Now how about an intro???
 

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
Moderator
4,008
1,924
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Cookeville TN
YellowBoss said:
Good communication is the key. First remove as much old fliud from the master cylinder as possible, use a turkey baster or something like a spray nozzle off a windex bottle. Remember to fill the master back up while doing the steps below, check it often when you start, after a while you will learn when more is needed.

One person in the car steps on the brake pedal, give it a couple of pumps then hold pressure. Another guy at the RR wheel opens the bleeder (best to attach a clear tube to some kind of catch can or drain pan) guy in the car says when the pedal is on the floor, guy at the wheel closes the bleeder and tell car guy he can let off the pedal. Repeat until the fluid is clean looking coming out.

If you use a Dot 4 fluid like super blue you can see a color difference, otherwise you should be able to see the new fluid coming out as clearer then the old fluid that has moisture in it. About one quart will flush the entire system.

Next move to the LR wheel do the same then the RF wheel and last the LF wheel. Each time you will have to flush less as the fluid has traveled through the lines and the points are closer to the master cylinder. On the front caliper there are two bleeder screws, do the inside one first, two or three pumps is fine then continue with the outer bleeder until the fluid is fresh.

Little tip for a nice firm brake pedal. When you are at the point of seeing fresh clean fluid coming out have the person in the car pump up the pedal a few time and hold it down with extra force. The person at the wheel can open the bleeder screw just a little, quarter turn, the pedal will move slowly down. When the pedal is at the half way down point the person in the car will say so and then close the bleeder at the wheel. Works great for me every time.

Save the money and follow Scott and Gary's recommendations and use the pedal pump method. Just suck out as much old fluid as you can and make sure to top off master cylinder after each wheel is done. Takes about 5 full pumps at each wheel to get new fluid all the way through. Need about 1 1/2 Liters to do the job.
Steve
 
I read somewhere that pumping the clutch a good 30-40 times helps clear the old out of that area and then do the final bleed. Is this true? That's what I did, can't hurt anything.
 
jnathan68 said:
I have used the Motive brake bleeder on both my Z and my Boss and love it. Old fashioned way is my back up.

How did you get it to work? I pumped it up to 10-15psi, opened the bleeder and nothing, not even a dribble.
 
898
544
racered302 said:
I tried the Motive power bleeder this weekend and nothing came out, even though I had the pressure up. The old fashion way works every time and it's straight forward, as long as you have a brake man. If not rig up a pogo stick or the o'l tube in a jar.

I have had this problem too. Interestingly, when I use the bleeder without fluid (empty) to presurize the master, it works.

I have another motive for older cars and have occasionally run into the same issue. With the older cars, I slightly depress the brake pedal which seems to get things going.

I have not tried depressing the pedal on the Boss. I am worried about squirting fluid on the paint. I use silicon brake fluid for the older cars which does not eat paint, but the dot4 for sure does.
 
2012-Boss said:
I have had this problem too. Interestingly, when I use the bleeder without fluid (empty) to presurize the master, it works.

I have another motive for older cars and have occasionally run into the same issue. With the older cars, I slightly depress the brake pedal which seems to get things going.

I have not tried depressing the pedal on the Boss. I am worried about squirting fluid on the paint. I use silicon brake fluid for the older cars which does not eat paint, but the dot4 for sure does.

I didn't put anything in the container either. Might have to try hitting the brake pedal a little to make sure I didn't throw my money away.
 
I agree with you guys using the old fashion method but I have a question. This is my first time changing brake fluid on a car with an ABS system. I read you need to have a scan tool that opens the ABS circuit to get all the old fluid out. So using the old fashion method how do you do this or is this not necessary? Can you mix the old fluid with the new racing DOT4 or will this cause problems? Thanks!
 
I read you would need the dealer's help if you got air in to the ABS portion, as in pumping in air by not refilling the master cylinder. Also from what I read you can mix dot 3 and 4, it just doesn't hold up to the heat as well as pure dot4. I don't think that small amount will matter. If you change it enough it will come out.
 
bulldogracer said:
I agree with you guys using the old fashion method but I have a question. This is my first time changing brake fluid on a car with an ABS system. I read you need to have a scan tool that opens the ABS circuit to get all the old fluid out. So using the old fashion method how do you do this or is this not necessary? Can you mix the old fluid with the new racing DOT4 or will this cause problems? Thanks!

I have heard about the whole "ABS needs a special this or that" to bleed the system and I'm not sure how true all of this is. I have not gone and read the shop manual but I assume the fluid passes through the ABS pump like the rest of the system. Maybe I am wrong in assuming that but I have flushed my system before every track day for a while now and never had a problem. I also know the teams in WC and Grand Am do not bleed the brakes in any special way or have fancy equipment because there is an ABS pump, yes race cars have ABS.

As for the second question, I have no idea why you would even think that. You want to do an entire flush of the system. One because if you have DOT 3 in the caliper and DOT 4 in the master what good does that do. Same goes with normal maintenance on the car, why flush it half way, you want to replace the completely. Doing anything but this for street or track will only lead to bad results.
 
Since the clutch and brakes share the same reservoir, where in the brake fluid replacement process does bleeding the clutch fit in?
 
athens7 said:
Since the clutch and brakes share the same reservoir, where in the brake fluid replacement process does bleeding the clutch fit in?

It does not really fit in, the clutch line is on a dead end street with no outlet, unlike the brakes. There is a procedure to bleed (pull air out) the clutch line with the proper tool attached to the master cylinder. This is the way the dealer did it and oddly enough the race teams, at least some of them, bleed the clutch by having someone pump the clutch pedal until their leg is sore.

While some of the fliud will get replaced over time with use the only way to replace the entire clutch line fluid is to remove the slave and drain it. That has been done to mine several times but don't worry, with the small amount of factory DOT 3 in the clutch line it will not have any majoy effect on the brakes.
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top