No Brakes!

[tseppish]

Ok, I knew just enough to be dangerous when I tried to top off the
brake fluid reservoir. I had a 2000 Focus previously and the brake and
power steering fluid were in the same reservoir. So I put power
steering fluid into my brake fluid tank. The brakes started to fail,
and after asking some questions, I found out it was because the power
steering fluid had eaten away at the seals in the master cylinder. I had it
flushed (although I don't think they did a thorough job), and I have
just replaced the master cylinder, and the fluid was still green. However, instead of having to push the pedal to the floor to get braking, now I get no brake at all, and no pressure on the peal. Could a flush and power bleed be in order? Or
could it now be more serious? I did not bleed the line after putting in the new cylinder, which I have since read must be done, and I haven't done on any car in years. I'll have to brush up on that, too.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! It definitely has air in the system. Disable the ABS to bleed it. You wouldn't want the ABS to start pumping while you are bleeding it.

 

[schmidlkofer]

lots of airr.

 

[trucku]

Another option is to bleed it with the vehicle off. I flush out my brakes every year and never do it with the truck on or key turned to run position. You don't have to disconnect ABS that way. Open bleeder and push pedal. Two can do it or use a clear hose over bleeder (slightly open) into a bottle and do it yourself. After you see the new fluid, close bleeder.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Motormite's Help parts line sells self bleeding plugs which replace the regular plugs on the calipers. They are small check valves. You only open them a little bit, step down on the brake pedal, then close those bleeder plugs.

 

[tseppish]

I will jump on the bleeding asap tomorrow. Thanks for the reassurance. Is there a significant difference between the dot30 and dot40 fluid? I was told that with the dot40 you have to let it sit for 24 hours to get rid of air bubbles.

 

[BrooklynBay]

They make various fluids such as dot 5 synthetic. Air should be purged without any waiting time.

 

[dogfriend]

I would just use the DOT3 fluid since its compatible with what you already have. If you use DOT4, I think you will still be ok, but I don't think you will really see any benefit. I would not use DOT5 because its not compatible IIRC, and you need to flush out all the old fluid to use it.

You should be able to bleed the system normally, but if you get air into the ABS system, you will need a scan tool to bleed air out of the ABS HCU.


More in this thread:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68512&highlight=bleed

 

[budwich]

if you didn't bench bleed your new master cylinder, its going to take a long time for your to get the air out.

 

[tseppish]

I actually pulled it off a 95 in a junkyard. When I compared the two I noticed that my bad cylinder had a gouge in it from the booster. But hopefully I wont have to go as far as bleeding the ABS.