Sunday, October 9, 2016

I Thought Brake Fluid Was Clear

While I'm waiting for my intake manifold gaskets to arrive I decided to take a look inside the brake master cylinder. When I was driving it home on day one I could tell the brakes needed some work. The power boost was nonexistent and the pedal felt like I was trying to crush a brick. I can see that the master cylinder and booster are new, as well as all the brake lines. There are new disc brakes on all 4 corners, of what origin is yet to be determined.

Now I know the booster won't work with the 6" of vacuum that I currently have but that fix is on the way. And I've eliminated the brake pedal binding caused by the worn support bracket. So the only thing left to do is flush the brake lines and bleed the brakes. Although the brake components are "new" they were probably installed between 6 and 9 years ago. Since that time the car has been driven less than 1500 miles.


Yuck! This is pretty nasty stuff. I hooked up my little vacuum pump and siphoned out as much as I could.


The bottom of the reservoirs looked even worse. I was worried that all the brown stuff was corrosion but it came out pretty clean.


Time to go buy some Dot 3 brake fluid and flush out the lines. Stay tuned...