Bleedin brakes.

[Wooders]

I have been a bit lapse at changing the brake fluid, I know it's normally 2 yrs but it's been on my list of jobs to do for the last 3! Now showing red on my brake fluid tester,so.
Couple of questions:-
1- what is the best way to bleed an ABS system?
2- Are the one man bleed (gunson) systems ok to use?
3- Will the system gravity bleed? Or better just getting the wife to assist with pedal pushing?
4- Which brake fluid to use? Castrol SRF is meant to be the best,but is it worth £50 a litre??!!??
Any thoughts?

[SonyVaio]

Volvo stuff is good but you can use ATE Blue DOT4 as it has similar specs to DOT 5.1 specifications and as it is Blue in colour you can tell easily when bleeding the new stuff coming through.

An Eze bleed system works well enough but there are many one man systems that'll do the job. Or simply two man and one presses the brake (SLOW AND EASY) whilst the other operates the bleed nipple, keeping the reservoir topped up.

You need approx. 1litre to do a bleed.

[Wooders]

The ATE is just what I needed,great idea being blue,and at £10 a ltr, not too expensive,cheers!
Going to try the easy bleed, but with low pressure first and then up the pressure till it just works,scared of damaging seals.
Unless I manage to rope someone in to help me,then it's old school!
Cheers.

[Alan C30]

watch the pressure!

I have heard somebody blew the reservoir apart!!

you do get vacuum type as well.

I just get a helping foot from the Mrs :-)

I did once put the air line on it to clear some REAL problems but used it very carefully

[cheshired5]

I used a Sealey VS820 pressure bleeder for my S60 and it's the best £40 I've ever spent. Simple, powerful and safe and it cleared out all manor of rubbish from the system. I reckon it hadn't been bled for 5+ years.
For fluid, I used Halfords Dot 4 @£17 for 5 litres. Their 1 litre bottle was £10 so it was an easy decision and as it is, I don't think 1 litre would be enough when using a pressure bleeder on a system that's a little overdue.
The car now brakes like it was new.

[AndyMcc]

The system requires 1lt for a full change.

I use the Gunson Self bleed kit. A doddle to use a very quick. Pressure is provided by the spare tyre ( just make sure you reduce the tyre pressure down to about 15 psi and re pressurise afterwards ) otherwise you can pop seals etc. one tip is to remove as much of the old stuff beforehand. Prevents odd and new mixing in the brake reservoir

I start rear nearside, rear offside, front nearside then front offside. Very easy job.

Andy

[Wooders]

I was planning on hooking it up to my compressor, starting with the pressure at zero on the regulator and slowly increasing until I see fluid coming out of the open bleed nipple,(that's if I cannot get a spare body for pedal duty).
I didn't think a litre would be enough either, so bought 2 litres.:-D

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by AndyMcc

The system requires 1lt for a full change.

Are you including the clutch in this figure?

[AndyMcc]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

Are you including the clutch in this figure?

No sorry, actually I seem to recall the brake system is 800ml, 1lt should be more than enough for a complete flush out and renew. The clutch is separate to the brakes.

Andy

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by AndyMcc

No sorry, actually I seem to recall the brake system is 800ml, 1lt should be more than enough for a complete flush out and renew. The clutch is separate to the brakes.

Andy

Fair enough.
It seems a shame to have nice fresh fluid in the brakes and 3 year old gunk in the clutch so you may as well do the clutch whilst you're in bleeding mode.
That's why I buy more Dot 4 because 1 litre might be borderline.