R&L's C6

Earlier in the week I posted a thread about changing your brake fluid .A few people chimed in and said it was possible to flush the system with a process similar to the Ranger method for clutches. Remove the old brake fluid from the reservoir and fill it with fresh fluid then drive it for a few days and repeat the process till it looks clean. Will this method work. For us non brake guys this is doable if it does.

smurfkiller

yes it will kinda work. that process will never garuntee you get all the old fluid out. the hardest part of changing brake fluid is taking the tires off the car. changing brake fluid is very easy, there are a ton of bleeders and pumps out there so you dont need someone to pump the pedal for you. my new favorite is my pheonix systems brake bleeder. i use it to push new clean fluid in at the caliper up to the resivor.

so yes sucking out some fluid and adding in some new fluid is better than nothing. ITS NOT THE BEST WAY TO DO IT.

if you dont know how to bleed brakes and change the fluid google it. just remember dont get the fluid on the paint.

Le Mans Z06

It would get it cleaner, sure but it would take quite awhile doing it that way, and would never fully flush the system.

BEZ06

I'm no expert, but in my view my fellow Ranger Ranger's clutch fluid swap method won't do much good in the brake system.

Neither system is a "circulating" system. However, the reservoir for the clutch fluid is not the master cylinder for the clutch - the master cylinder is down below, connected to the reservoir by about an 18 inch long vertical tube, and the entire system contains a very small amount of hydraulic fluid compared to the brake system.

When you push the clutch pedal you are operating the master cylinder down by the clutch actuator. Get a helper (or a mirror) and open your hood and watch the fluid level in your clutch reservoir when you push in the clutch pedal - it goes down about 1/4 inch (be careful if you have the cap off the reservoir - the fluid will plume up a couple inches, especially if you let up on the pedal rapidly).

So.....with the clutch, you're moving fluid in and out of the master cylinder and up and down the tube between the master cylinder and the reservoir. That's why the Ranger method has you do a bunch of clutch pedal pumps to move the fluid back-and-forth to sort of flush the system. The Ranger method works very well in the clutch system.

However, the brake fluid reservoir IS the master cylinder. There are several feet of tubing going down to each front caliper, and many feet of tubing going back to the rear calipers. The hydraulic fluid essentially acts like a long metal rod - you push on one end with the brake pedal, and the other end of the rod pushes the piston out in the caliper so the pads squeeze the brake rotor. Hydraulic fluid does not flow down the tubing, at least not very far at all.

The real areas of concern in the brake system are the ABS lines and the calipers - neither of which will be affected at all by swapping fluid in the master cylinder reservoir.

To properly flush fresh fluid through the ABS circuits you need a Tech 2 to open the valves to those lines during the flush.

The calipers are what gets the hottest during braking and where the fluid will get degraded the most. To get the crappy old fluid out of the calipers and the flexible brake hoses that connect the calipers to the hard lines from the master cylinder, you MUST bleed fluid from the bleed valves in the calipers. The fluid in the brake hoses and in the twisty passages within the caliper that channel fluid to the pistons will only be properly flushed by proper brake bleeding - and that's probably the most important area where you need to flush out the dirty old fluid and get fresh new fluid in there.

So.....IMHO the Ranger method works great for the clutch system, but just is not sufficient to get fresh new fluid anywhere close to the calipers where it's most important, not to mention the ABS lines.

Just MHO, YMMV!!

BTW, take a look at the picture below to see some components of both systems. #1 is the clutch master cylinder, 25 is the actuator, and 26 is the clutch fluid reservoir. #29 is the brake reservoir/master cylinder and it bolts onto the booster that supplies pressure for the power brakes.

Bob

fnsblum

No! Later! Frank

AORoads

that reads like a pretty comprehensive text on the matter by Bob, (bez) above. I think I'll copy that to my library.

R&L's C6

Thanks for the replies. I will be the first to say I don't know much about brakes but I couldn't understand how the oil would get changed out down by the calipers that way. Well I guess it was to good to be true. I love this forum, full of alot of knowledge and people willing to take the time to share it.

cclive

I agree with Bob above and would only add that the only reason that we do the ranger method is because it is SO difficult to bleed the clutch the normal way. The brakes are easy, so no reason not to just bleed them normally.

StKnoWhere

Great and instructive post as always Bob!