Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Changing Break Fluid

Has anyone bled the breaks? A service guy told me that I need to change the break fluid. I was going to try and do it myself. Would the Chilton Service Manual and I (and another guy) be able to do it in a couple hours? I have never done it before but want to/need to do it.

Any suggestions? Should I have it professionally done? :?

Thanks!

You may find this recent string interesting. It may answer your questions.

http://www.contour.org/forums/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=25;t=000726

You should be able to do the clutch and all four wheels in less than an hour (even as a beginner). With two people who have done it before you can do it in 15 minutes.

I recently bled/flushed my brakes... it took a few hours, but only because I had no assistant to pump the pedal. Also I apparently got air in it when almost done and had to do part of it over. And I did it in two steps: flush as well as I could, then drive around and brake hard to pump out any fluid inside the ABS system, then bleed some more. This was to eliminate any traces of the old lower-temperature fluid. I used Valvoline SynPower, which is almost as clear as water and advertises a boiling temperature of 502 degrees.

My hints:
Don't unscrew the front bleeders more than the minimum amount, the screws leak too much when opened even one full turn. The back ones (if you have drums) are better.

Don't buy a commercial "brake bleeding kit". I got one and ended up throwing it away, except for the main length of clear hose, within ten minutes.

The best hose to use is clear plastic for the main length, so you can see the color and any bubbles, but the part that goes over the screw works much better if you use rubber vacuum hose. So I used about five inches of rubber with the clear plastic fitted onto it. (This especially helped since the hose that came with the bogus kit was rather too short.) The fluid may damage the rubber eventually, I suppose, but it works well enough to use.

Finding a place to properly dispose of used brake fluid at may be difficult... but do find one, don't pour it in the gutter.

My brother and I did his ZX2 in almost no time. Very simple job unless you break off a bleeder zerk (ie. my trucks).