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Brake & Clutch fluid change


Dave1981
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Just a quick post to share my exp of changing the brake and clutch fluid on my mk2.5 that I exp yesterday. I've had the car a yr almost and it was the one job left for me to do. Got a ltr of Mobil brake fluid and got the car jacked up and ready to start. 

Rear ofdside brake bled easily, used a vacuum pump kit I had so didn't need to do the whole pumping the pedal thing.

Rear near side bleed easily also.. So far so gd i thought!

Front near side was the pain. Cleaned bleed nipple as looked a bit rusty. Hit with penetration fluid and soon as tried to turn it, it sheared off flush with caliper 😠

Luckily it hadn't turned so wasn't leaking. Went to the offside front and did the same and that sheared too!!! 

One thing I did find that the rear bleed nipples r 10mm n the fronts r smaller 9mm, seems daft to me. 

Luckily eurocarparts got a 30% sale on so £200 later, with a £48 surcharge to come back, it's got 2 new front calipers on and as a bonus looks smarter now with clean shiny calipers lol.. 

The clutch was much simpler to do. Remove air box attach pipe for bleeding. Turn valve 90degrees and pump vaccum.. think the fluid has never been done though as it was almost black.. clutch is now alot firmer and all spongy feeling has gone. So what started as a simple job became a expensive job and twice as long!!! 

And i missed the England rugby game cause of it!!

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Ouch! I'd have been looking for the drill bits! lol 

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I did think bout drilling it but tbf the calipers had seen better days and i was planning to buy a rebuild kit in the summer for them. Add in the sale eurocarparts have on this wkend and I thought quicker to just change them both. Gonna service the rears though   

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2 hours ago, Dave1981 said:

One thing I did find that the rear bleed nipples r 10mm n the fronts r smaller 9mm, seems daft to me. 

I did my first brake fluid change a few months back and I by chance was lent a 9mm spanner a few days before otherwise I'd have been stuck for the fronts!!  Unlucky re the new calipers though - mine too were seized but managed to get them open with plusgas, patience, help from on here and last but not least a hammer gently wacking the spanner and job was done.  Used the Sealey pressure bleeder which was pretty good I have to say.  

Am I right in thinking the clutch and brake fluid share the same reservoir?  I only bled the brakes so how do you bleed the clutch?

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put some copper grease on the bleed screw threads of the new ones. if you tried drilling the old ones out it is likely you would never have achieved a good usable thread at the end of it, and possibly damaged the seating at the bottom. bleed screw threads are something you can not bodge, they are critical to safety.

Personally this is the kind of reason I don't change the brake fluid unless absolutely 100% neccessary .

Bleed screws snapping on motorcycles is very common (steel screws in alloy housings always seems to be worse than steel in steel) for this reason you can buy these for motorbikes (for after the bleed screw snapped in the caliper). banjo hos attachment bolts with bleed screw in

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Banjo-Bolt-Bleed-Nipple-Screw-M10-x-1-25mm-/131348033197?hash=item1e94f3eead:g:hmQAAOSwAF5UY30O

maybe some will fit some cars

 

f

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I did grease the new bleed nipples before I bled the system with copper slip.  As u said drilling it would prob not work anyway due to size. Or lack of and then to recut the thread as well. 

I used the same bleeder it makes short work of it too. The clutch is easy to bleed, remove airbox, ull see what looks like a plastic bleed nipple simple attach the pipe as u would of doing brakes. Turn the plastic valve 90degree and bleed. What came out of mine can only be described as pure filth!!! Don't think it been touched in yrs if ever at all!! Clutch fluid seems to get forgotten about.. 

On a side note I've had plenty of bikes and never had a nipple shear once lol.. 

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1 hour ago, isetta said:

put some copper grease on the bleed screw threads of the new ones. if you tried drilling the old ones out it is likely you would never have achieved a good usable thread at the end of it, and possibly damaged the seating at the bottom. bleed screw threads are something you can not bodge, they are critical to safety.

Personally this is the kind of reason I don't change the brake fluid unless absolutely 100% neccessary .

Bleed screws snapping on motorcycles is very common (steel screws in alloy housings always seems to be worse than steel in steel) for this reason you can buy these for motorbikes (for after the bleed screw snapped in the caliper). banjo hos attachment bolts with bleed screw in

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Banjo-Bolt-Bleed-Nipple-Screw-M10-x-1-25mm-/131348033197?hash=item1e94f3eead:g:hmQAAOSwAF5UY30O

maybe some will fit some cars

 

f

Drilling them out does work, only a problem if your not confident with a drill. You are not drilling the caliper material you are only drilling the bleed screw.

After all, the company who now takes your old caliper isn't about to throw it in the bin for a snapped bleed screw. 

Next time I've got a caliper with a broken bleed screw I'll do a guide or video to show how. 

Normally I find if bleed screws haven't been opened in a long time they can be tricky. A bit of patience and skill can get them to open without snapping though.

Watch out with those pressure bleeders, on cars with concentric slave cylinders they can be an issue. I had only ever been warned by someone who fits only clutches/gearboxes for a living that they can damage the seals. Then it happened to me one day even at a very low pressure! The clutch bled perfectly fine, 2 weeks later it was back in for another bleed, this happened a couple more times before putting it down to a damaged seal. Only ever vacuum bleed now!

 

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  • 2 years later...

Sorry to bump old post but what brake fluid did you use?

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1 hour ago, Solverz said:

Sorry to bump old post but what brake fluid did you use?

Dot 4 is the usual stuff. I just buy the pagid one from ECP.

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