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You can get a brake bleed kit for £20 which is the same as the Hope one - attach to a spare tyre, it forces fluid through the system and out the other end. There's also a Sealey thing like a small garden sprayer for £40 that you pump up - looks like it would be easier to use and you'd have more control. Might also be adaptable for bikes.
Any experiences? A few people say the spare wheel ones can blow the top off the bottle and spray fluid everywhere. The cap on my Hope one cracked too.
I last used one of the spare wheel type 20+ years ago, it worked fine as long as you didn't use the spare tyre at the kind of pressure you'd normally keep a spare tyre at - for my car that'd be 36 psi or so!
These days I can't be bothered, I think my garage bloke charged me £20 or so as part of a service and at that kind of money I can't be arsed with the DIY.
These days I can’t be bothered, I think my garage bloke charged me £20 or so as part of a service and at that kind of money I can’t be arsed with the DIY.
But this is a molgrips thread 😉
These days I can’t be bothered, I think my garage bloke charged me £20 or so as part of a service and at that kind of money I can’t be arsed with the DIY.
As part of service or an add on?
Had this with Vauxhall main stealer when I put wife's car in for 2 yr service.
G: You'll need to change brake fluid, that'll be £35 extra on your fixed fee service.
M: Why is in not part of fixed service fee if it needs done?
G: its an optional change
M: so why does wifes car need done
G: Because car is 2 yrs old and needs done.
M: Car is in for 2 yrs service, so it must be part of 2 yr service plan
G: no its an extra
M: WTF?
It never got done and she's still alive
My car has a big red 'SERVICE' light on the dash every time I start it now - turns out it was expecting a brake fluid change in Feb 2018 which I haven't done yet. I suspect most people just get the service code reset, tbh.
I used the spare wheel one to do my van. Worked easily enough. I used the wheel off a wheelbarrow to pressurize it rather than the spare wheel and kept the pressure at the lower end though.
"As part of service or an add on?"
It was a local guy with a unit on an industrial estate, not a main dealer. It was a pretty ad-hoc pre-MOT thing, putting it up in a ramp checking brakes, suspension, steering. I got him to change the fluid and fuel filter because they were due, he charged £20 for the brake fluid change.
"It never got done and she’s still alive"
I think I had it done once on my last car and I had that for 10 years. That's probably not great but then changing it 2-yearly sounds like overdoing it if you're not doing regular track days.
Brake fluid absorbs water and you get wear particles in it. after 2 years the performance of the fluid will be reduces. for a few quid why skimp? It really needs to be changed or one day best case scenario you will need to change allthe master and slave cylinders, worst case the brakes will fail
Molgrips - go old school? piece of tubing and jam jar? Needs two folk then of course. Suction bleeders are better than pressure ones ie suck the fluid out thru the bleed nipple rather than force it thru from the top
"Molgrips – go old school? piece of tubing and jam jar? Needs two folk then of course. "
not a great idea if its anything remotely modern with an ABS pump. - and judging by the slave cylinders comment its not been modern stuff you ahve worked on 😀
i have both a vac bleeder and an "easibleed"
both have their merits but the vac bleeder is far easier for me.
Molgrips – go old school? piece of tubing and jam jar? Needs two folk then of course.
Answered your own question there 🙂 I'd rather get it done quickly, especially since a single change could cost £40 on its own. And even better if the widget can bleed bike brakes too.
Also I can use the VCDS to cycle the ABS pump to clear the old fluid out of it. I bet the £20 indie doesn't do that.
Probably doesn't matter much for typical use, but we tow a caravan and we might end up in the Alps one day.
It really needs to be changed or one day
include it in service plan then. Vauxhall CS said it was advisory not mandatory to do.
car is on a 3yr plan I'm sure it'll be fine
The Eezibleed kit is good and good vet used it on a few different cars. It’s quick to use and no need for someone else to pump the brakes. If using a spare tyre to to create the pressure then observe the maximum pressure to avoid spraying the car in brake fluid. Work furthest from the the brake fluid reservoir to nearest.
I've had the Sealey vacuum bleeder which wasn’t that good, the Mittyvac is really good and my favourite but more money.
For modern VAG I used a pressure bleeder (manual pump bottle with gauge like the Sealey one) and VCDS to cycle the ABS pump. Lots of internet stories of cracked reservoirs, not happened to me yet. Audi workshop manual had a pressure you were supposed to bleed at.
Manual bleeding has also worked fine for me unless you airlock the ABS pump.
Trail Rat - what vacuum device do you use and why is it better?
Craig - which Mittyvac?
i have an airline operated one as i have compressor
its quicker and less messy for me. Stick a reservoir on the top of the master cylinder reservoir then starting furthest away pull through till clean fluid appears and when bleeding from fresh (changing a caliper or a slave) it seems to be much much easier to get all the air our than if by pushing it .
Mityvac 8550 is what I have
Still need to manually top up the reservoir though don't you, with that Mittyvac? Or do you?
Hmm - seems the MV8000 sucks only, but the 8500 blows too. Blowing would be ace for MTB brakes since I have the top caps from the Hope kit to catch the overspill and check fluid colour. But sucking for car brakes.
Yes, you still have to top up the reservoir.
If you’ve never done car brakes before then remove as much as possible from the reservoir and top up with new fluid before bleeding.