Im bleeding my brake lines. Its been 2 years and cannot believe the difference in color of the fluid.

 

Good on you to keep up with this. Too many people think doing it every two years is overkill....until they have brake failure.

 

Having a clean bottle does feel good

 

Gatorade is not an approved substitute for DOT4 brake fluid.

 

The color of the extracted fluid is more meaningful when compared to a sample of the same fluid when installed. Save a sample of your new fluid in an airtight glass container and see how it compares in 2 years. I changed my fluid 8 months ago and the new fluid was just slightly darker than the fluid I removed.

 

I have been using the Mercedes Dot4+ brake fluid, can get a 1 Liter tin of it on ebay for less than $20 and its fresh, dates show it was recently made and use by date is 2028 I think. I still have the container from 2yrs ago and the fluid does look the same in color as the new fluid, looks like vegetable oil.

My operators manual says the system holds 0.5L and I ended up with around 0.6L in the bleeder bottle but that is without the old fluid I sucked out the reservoir which I put in another bottle. I used a large syringe for injecting meat to suck out the fluid.

With the fluid pump it is such a simple job. I never changed brake fluid in any of my previous vehicles but if I had known I would have bought a fluid pump 20yrs ago and done it. One of the reasons i want to keep up with replacing the brake fluid is the issue with rusting break lines, hopefully the insides of the lines will stay in good condition. My lines do have some rust/corrosion but dont look too bad.

I collected all the tools for the job though only used an 11mm wrench, 1/4" torque wrench w/11mm deep socket. Torque spec for the bleeders is 62inlbs which I did last time and they easily loosened this time. Takes less than a minute to bleed each line, the majority of the time I spent cleaning the rims and inspecting everything on the car since the wheels were off. Everything looked good except for the tie rods that I now want to replace though looks like I may need to lower the subframe to get the inner bolt out. Ill have to research more. Was thinking about replacing the rear sway bar links but they look fine to me and dont see a reason to.

Also the passenger side sway bar link bottom boot looks cracked and i just replaced them 2yrs ago. The drivers side looks fine. Think I will take advantage of the FCP warranty for it.











Passenger side link:


Drivers side:

 

The best reason for DIY (if you can't have it done at a MB dealer) is the DOT4+ fluid spec, which is MB proprietary. Even if you carry in a couple liters to an indy shop, likely it will get dumped into a fluid pump that still has DOT3 or DOT 4 residue in it, and your fluid will end up contaminated. Biggest challenge with the DIY is handling and disposal of the fluid -- take it slow and don't spill any.

I like your drain bottle graduation lines. I'm going to mark my 1/2L Motive bottles similarly.

 

Brake Bleeding procedure with bleeder torque spec.