Cheap and easy way to change brake fluid
Discussion
Brake fluid needs changing every 3 to 4 years as it degrades. Normally this is not so easy for the home mechanic as the cars have a split brake system, and tools like Easy bleed really need a good push on the pedal to move enough fluid, which is impossible when one system is still fully pressured, so the pedal hardly moves. The best option is to suck the fluid out of each brake nipple one at a time, and there are lots of expensive tools to do this. A really low cost option is to buy one of the cheap Chinese Bosch replica fuel pumps (currently around £16 on Ebay) and add a bit of pipework. You need to use a bit of distributor vacumme pipe to go over the brake nipple, so it wont collapse under vacuum and an old rubber spark plug cap can be used to alter the diameter of the pipes to fit the tube to the large inlet on the pump and superglue the joints air tight. The outlet just needs to go into a catch tank with a bit of fuel hose( with a loose cap!) . I've cobbled this together from bits I had laying around and it works a treat.
Mark,
An excellent idea.
I have one of the manual devices where you create a vacuum by pumping air out of a large plastic cylinder but it was not cheap.
You may find that the electric pump has too much pressure and that some form of air control will be necessary, I find that a steady flow of brake fluid is much preferred to a sudden rush and minimises the creation of air bubbles.
An excellent idea.
I have one of the manual devices where you create a vacuum by pumping air out of a large plastic cylinder but it was not cheap.
You may find that the electric pump has too much pressure and that some form of air control will be necessary, I find that a steady flow of brake fluid is much preferred to a sudden rush and minimises the creation of air bubbles.
I've got one of the Gunson Easibleed kits and have found it very simple and easy to use if you DON'T follow the instructions.
What I do is suck most of the old fluid out of the master cylinder reservoir, refill to the brim with new fluid, then connect the Easibleed kit WITHOUT putting any fluid into the plastic bottle that forms part of the Easibleed kit.
Connect up to a tyre valve as you should, then just crack each bleed nipple off in turn and wait until you see the new fluid come through into your jam jar or whatever you use to catch the waste fluid.
Keep your eye on the fluid level in the master cylinder reservoir so that it doesn't drop too far past the minimum mark. Top up as necessary.
If you go round each nipple twice in turn I reckon you'll have got 99% of the old fluid out of the system. Job done.
What I do is suck most of the old fluid out of the master cylinder reservoir, refill to the brim with new fluid, then connect the Easibleed kit WITHOUT putting any fluid into the plastic bottle that forms part of the Easibleed kit.
Connect up to a tyre valve as you should, then just crack each bleed nipple off in turn and wait until you see the new fluid come through into your jam jar or whatever you use to catch the waste fluid.
Keep your eye on the fluid level in the master cylinder reservoir so that it doesn't drop too far past the minimum mark. Top up as necessary.
If you go round each nipple twice in turn I reckon you'll have got 99% of the old fluid out of the system. Job done.
Matt_E_Mulsion said:
I've got one of the Gunson Easibleed kits and have found it very simple and easy to use if you DON'T follow the instructions.
What I do is suck most of the old fluid out of the master cylinder reservoir, refill to the brim with new fluid, then connect the Easibleed kit WITHOUT putting any fluid into the plastic bottle that forms part of the Easibleed kit.
What I do is suck most of the old fluid out of the master cylinder reservoir, refill to the brim with new fluid, then connect the Easibleed kit WITHOUT putting any fluid into the plastic bottle that forms part of the Easibleed kit.
posted this just yesterday on a FB group ..... "Unless filling/bleeding a new system I don't put fluid in the bottle. The master cylinder reservior holds quite a lot, just keep an eye on the level"
Loubaruch said:
Mark,
An excellent idea.
I have one of the manual devices where you create a vacuum by pumping air out of a large plastic cylinder but it was not cheap.
You may find that the electric pump has too much pressure and that some form of air control will be necessary, I find that a steady flow of brake fluid is much preferred to a sudden rush and minimises the creation of air bubbles.
You are using it to draw the fluid out, so you only have atmosphere pressure at the reservoir end so you can't over pressure anything. Nice thing is with negative pressure on the bleed valve, you will never draw air back into the system as long as the reservoir has fluid. An excellent idea.
I have one of the manual devices where you create a vacuum by pumping air out of a large plastic cylinder but it was not cheap.
You may find that the electric pump has too much pressure and that some form of air control will be necessary, I find that a steady flow of brake fluid is much preferred to a sudden rush and minimises the creation of air bubbles.
Changing just the fluid in the reservoir once a year will help as it will replace part of the fluid and it does move in and out of the chamber.
blitzracing said:
You are using it to draw the fluid out, so you only have atmosphere pressure at the reservoir end so you can't over pressure anything. Nice thing is with negative pressure on the bleed valve, you will never draw air back into the system as long as the reservoir has fluid.
Changing just the fluid in the reservoir once a year will help as it will replace part of the fluid and it does move in and out of the chamber.
My point was that if you have too much pull at the brake nipple you can draw air in through the brake nipple threads if not careful.Changing just the fluid in the reservoir once a year will help as it will replace part of the fluid and it does move in and out of the chamber.
phillpot said:
I'm interested too as I have both an old fuel pump and old screen washer pump. I don't need to do the refresh this year as I've renewed the main front to back brake pipe and drained the system. Then re-filled using
a commercial garage equipment.
Loubaruch said:
My point was that if you have too much pull at the brake nipple you can draw air in through the brake nipple threads if not careful.
This is one of the reasons I don't like easy bleeds, as you can draw air back in down the nipple thread and by pass the valve as you lift the pedal. You are very likely to draw air past the nipple thread with a pump as well as fluid from the caliper, but at no point should air go into the caliper itself as it will simply exit via the nipples negative pressure. blitzracing said:
This is one of the reasons I don't like easy bleeds, as you can draw air back in down the nipple thread and by pass the valve as you lift the pedal.
I think we must be talking different 'easibleeds' here, I use the one with a little bottle, pressurised by a tyre, painless and simple 
I'm guessing you're on about the crappy bit of pipe with a one way valve and you still have to pump the pedal? Waste of time and money
I think a high pressure fuel injection pump is a bit OTT , what about something like this ? Cheap enough.
Edited by phillpot on Saturday 11th April 15:52
[quote=phillpot]
I think we must be talking different 'easibleeds' here, I use the one with a little bottle, pressurised by a tyre, painless and simple
I'm guessing you're on about the crappy bit of pipe with a one way valve and you still have to pump the pedal? Waste of time and money
I think a high pressure fuel injection pump is a bit OTT , what about something like this ? Cheap enough.
You are correct, I was being a bit generic here. I've also used the pressurised Easy bleeds- they are a joke also. Why on earth would you want to use a secondary chamber for the fluid? After all, if your Easy bleed reservoir cap leaks (as mine did) it now forces hydraulic fluid out as there is no airspace in the reservoir. Then when you remove the cap, the reservoir is no so full you have to drain some of it out. Far from ideal in the days of cellulose paint!
I think we must be talking different 'easibleeds' here, I use the one with a little bottle, pressurised by a tyre, painless and simple
I'm guessing you're on about the crappy bit of pipe with a one way valve and you still have to pump the pedal? Waste of time and money
I think a high pressure fuel injection pump is a bit OTT , what about something like this ? Cheap enough.
You are correct, I was being a bit generic here. I've also used the pressurised Easy bleeds- they are a joke also. Why on earth would you want to use a secondary chamber for the fluid? After all, if your Easy bleed reservoir cap leaks (as mine did) it now forces hydraulic fluid out as there is no airspace in the reservoir. Then when you remove the cap, the reservoir is no so full you have to drain some of it out. Far from ideal in the days of cellulose paint!
blitzracing said:
. I've also used the pressurised Easy bleeds- they are a joke also. Why on earth would you want to use a secondary chamber for the fluid?
As Matt and I have said, there is no need to put fluid in the bottle, just keep an eye on the level in the master cylinder reservoir. ... 
This guy uses the trigger from a spray bottle to suck the brake fluid out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af0SYcbzIbo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af0SYcbzIbo
blitzracing said:
phillpot said:
I think we must be talking different 'easibleeds' here, I use the one with a little bottle, pressurised by a tyre, painless and simple
I'm guessing you're on about the crappy bit of pipe with a one way valve and you still have to pump the pedal? Waste of time and money
I think a high pressure fuel injection pump is a bit OTT , what about something like this ? Cheap enough.
You are correct, I was being a bit generic here. I've also used the pressurised Easy bleeds- they are a joke also. Why on earth would you want to use a secondary chamber for the fluid? After all, if your Easy bleed reservoir cap leaks (as mine did) it now forces hydraulic fluid out as there is no airspace in the reservoir. Then when you remove the cap, the reservoir is no so full you have to drain some of it out. Far from ideal in the days of cellulose paint!
I've used the pressurised Eezibleed kit for years (decades) and only had a problem once when my first kit was getting old and there was an air leak which overfilled the reservoir as you described. That just taught me to check that all was air tight before I filled the bottle with fluid by connecting it all up with the bottle empty first and listening for leaks when under pressure.I'm guessing you're on about the crappy bit of pipe with a one way valve and you still have to pump the pedal? Waste of time and money
I think a high pressure fuel injection pump is a bit OTT , what about something like this ? Cheap enough.
You are correct, I was being a bit generic here. I've also used the pressurised Easy bleeds- they are a joke also. Why on earth would you want to use a secondary chamber for the fluid? After all, if your Easy bleed reservoir cap leaks (as mine did) it now forces hydraulic fluid out as there is no airspace in the reservoir. Then when you remove the cap, the reservoir is no so full you have to drain some of it out. Far from ideal in the days of cellulose paint!
It's a pretty cheap and easy way to bleed hydraulic systems or replace the fluid.
Edited by Tyre Tread on Tuesday 14th April 15:12
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