Brake Fluid Change

[tojosa]

Hi all. Question: I have 3 cars at 100,000 miles. A 98 Camry, a 2000 Camry and a 99 Honda Accord. I have never changed the brake fluid. Is this something I hafta do to save the abs or are the dealers pumping up revenues?

[tojosa]

PS Toyota says nothing about it that I know of.

[gator2764]

You and another person can do that job yourself. It just takes a little time to do it.

[AccordCodger]

For the Accord it's part of scheduled maintenance.

[Toysrme]

Minus a hand full of MB brakes, all brake fluid / bleeds are done the same way. There is nothing special you need to do when working on normal, ABS, or individually controlled brakes.
All you need to know is anytime you have a wheel off a vehicle that has wheel speed sensors (required for basic ABS). They can get damaged easily if you go knocking arthem around.

btw brake fluid should be inspected every 12 months (15,000miles) & changed every 3 years (36,000 miles).

[hueroloco]

you should do what i do to flush brakes. You need 4 things:

an empty gatorade bottle
brake fluid
2 or 3 feet of 5/32" hose
a wrench for your bleeders

Take the gatorade bottle and clean it out thoroughly. Clean it with brake cleaner if you have some, to get all the moisture out.

Once you've done that fill the bottle about 1 inch high with new brake fluid. Stick one end of the hose into the bottle (make sure the end of the hose is submerged, you can fill it higher than 1 inch if you need to) and the other end stick on the end of the bleeder valve. Open the bleeder.

At this point the brake fluid might start to come out and will make bubbles in the gatorade. This is ok. In fact, this is called "gravity bleeding". This would be a great way to bleed brakes except it would take all day, or on some cars all week.

Make sure that the brake hose in the gatorade stays submerged, this is important if you want to properly bleed/flush the system.

Now for the flushing. Get in the drivers seat and pump the brakes. Pump them slow and steady. I usually pump them about 20 times per wheel. You can do more or less.

A couple things to be aware of:
Don't push down too far on the brake pedal, it can ruin the seals in the master cylinder.
Make sure that there is always fluid in the master cylinder. You can have someone keep filling it while you pump the brakes. If air gets in the system, then you'll have to bleed the master.

This is the BEST way to flush the brake fluid or bleed a brake system. I've been doing it for years and I haven't come across a better way to do it. Pressure bleeding works, but I prefer this method to even pressure bleeding.

[EA6BMECH]

They make a tool called a Mighty-Vac. It's a small hand vacumme pump. Should do it with 2 people, it'll go faster. Suck out the resevoir and refill with new fluid. Then hook up the Might Vac to the bleeder screw, crack it open and start pumping. Have someone pour the new fluid in as you do it. One thing to keep in mind and I think it bit me, pour the fluid slow in the resevoir because tiny air bubbles form when you pour the fluid and can get in the lines and mess up your day. I did one of my cars already and want to do the other one whenever I get one of the "roun-2-its"

[hueroloco]

be careful when you use vacuum to bleed or flush. I used to use a vacuum system to flush/bleed, but i found that sometimes it would suck air into the system and I'd have to bleed it again. Doing things twice sucks.