brake fluid color | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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brake fluid color

jgilbs

Elite Explorer
Joined
October 29, 2002
Messages
1,201
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City, State
Naperville, IL(home)/Iowa City, IA(school)
Year, Model & Trim Level
92 Eddie Bauer
I went to replace my front brakes today and noticed the fluid is dark brown. Is this really bad? I have a VERY spongy pedal and I am going to adjust the rear brakes tommorrow, but could this be caused by VERY old fluid? also, How would I go about bleeding the brake system, and how much fluid does the brake system hold?
 






the brake system doesnt hold much fluid at all.....

very old fluid is bad... it breakdown and absorbs moisture from the air and that is bad....

normally the color of new, good fluid is clear to slightly off clear/slight amber .... i actually have some hi-performance brake fluid that is blue
 






Assuming you don't have access to a brake bleeding machine that the shops use, the quickest way to bleed the brakes is power bleeding. It takes two people to pull it off.

With 4wd/rwd vehicles, start with the wheel that is furthest away from the master cylinder and work your way to closest- usually the right rear, left rear, right front, left front.

When you power bleed your brakes, one person is going to be pushing down the brake pedal while one person opens/closes the caliper bleeder screw. You crack open the bleeder screw, have the person push the brake pedal down slowly till it bottoms out and hold it (DO NOT LET BACK UP!!!), close the bleeder screw, and then its safe to let the brake pedal back up. If you let the pedal back up while the bleeder screw is open, you can get air in the system. Do this at each wheel until the fluid coming out looks clean.

Don't let the master cylinder run dry - refill it after every 10-15 cycles. Also, if you only have one person available you can buy special fittings that screw into the caliper bleeder screw location.
 






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