Hello all,
I finally got around to doing my brake fluid change this weekend. All in all, the job was pretty easy. Removing the wheels and getting the jetta up on jack stands took a good portion of my time. I understand that this may not be necessary, but I wanted to poke around and inspect everything.
I used a motive power bleeder to do the change. I confirmed dieseldorf's findings that this can be done without putting fluid in the bleeder. I just used a turkey baster to remove as much of the old fluid as possible from the the fluid resevoir, and then filled it with the new ATE blue fluid. My old fluid was amber.
This was the first time I have done a fluid change. Its not really that hard (I did it!) and needs to be done every two years.
My blow by blow of what was done is as follows:
1) Remove wheels and get car up on jack stands at all four corners.
2) Remove cap and sensor on fluid resevoir.
3) Use baster to remove fluid from resevoir.
4) Attach power bleeder to the fluid resevoir and pressurize it. (Do not exceed 14.5 psi! I went for about 10)
5)Connect drip tube to the right rear bleed valve and/or receptacle.
6) Open bleed valve with 11mm wrench and bleed till only new fluid is present in the fluid stream
(Bear in mind you need to keep an eye on the fluid level in the resevoir as well, insuring it does not go blow the MIN marking)
7) Close valve and then repeat on the LR, RF, LF wheels, then on the clutch, watching the fluid level at the resevoir.
(If refilling, depressurize by unscrewing the cap on the bleeder, NOT on the resevoir cap!)
Right rear brakes (arrows point to the bleeder screws)
Left rear brakes (notice the pads are toasted!)
Right front brakes
Left front brakes
Clutch bleed screw (yellow arrow points to bleed screw)
Motive bleeder connected to resevoir
View of resevoir (NOTE the markings for min and max are to the right of the text and obscured in this pic)
Ready to bleed the right rear
Bleeding out the amber fluid (note the rust bits which I think came from the screw area as they were only present after opening it up)
Only blue fluid now...
Bleeding left rear, amber fluid coming out...
Blue fluid begins to show as a fine line in the center of the stream
Blue fluid is now about half the stream
So that is it. I found I had to refill the resevoir after each bleed to keep the level where it needed to be.
I also found that my rear brakes are toasted, but the fronts are fine. I am suspecting the emergency brake cable tension might be to blame. Any other ideas?
Test driving proved the job successful. The brakes seem more responsive, but who knows how much of that assessment is just my mind telling me I did a good job.
I finally got around to doing my brake fluid change this weekend. All in all, the job was pretty easy. Removing the wheels and getting the jetta up on jack stands took a good portion of my time. I understand that this may not be necessary, but I wanted to poke around and inspect everything.
I used a motive power bleeder to do the change. I confirmed dieseldorf's findings that this can be done without putting fluid in the bleeder. I just used a turkey baster to remove as much of the old fluid as possible from the the fluid resevoir, and then filled it with the new ATE blue fluid. My old fluid was amber.
This was the first time I have done a fluid change. Its not really that hard (I did it!) and needs to be done every two years.
My blow by blow of what was done is as follows:
1) Remove wheels and get car up on jack stands at all four corners.
2) Remove cap and sensor on fluid resevoir.
3) Use baster to remove fluid from resevoir.
4) Attach power bleeder to the fluid resevoir and pressurize it. (Do not exceed 14.5 psi! I went for about 10)
5)Connect drip tube to the right rear bleed valve and/or receptacle.
6) Open bleed valve with 11mm wrench and bleed till only new fluid is present in the fluid stream
(Bear in mind you need to keep an eye on the fluid level in the resevoir as well, insuring it does not go blow the MIN marking)
7) Close valve and then repeat on the LR, RF, LF wheels, then on the clutch, watching the fluid level at the resevoir.
(If refilling, depressurize by unscrewing the cap on the bleeder, NOT on the resevoir cap!)
Right rear brakes (arrows point to the bleeder screws)
Left rear brakes (notice the pads are toasted!)
Right front brakes
Left front brakes
Clutch bleed screw (yellow arrow points to bleed screw)
Motive bleeder connected to resevoir
View of resevoir (NOTE the markings for min and max are to the right of the text and obscured in this pic)
Ready to bleed the right rear
Bleeding out the amber fluid (note the rust bits which I think came from the screw area as they were only present after opening it up)
Only blue fluid now...
Bleeding left rear, amber fluid coming out...
Blue fluid begins to show as a fine line in the center of the stream
Blue fluid is now about half the stream
So that is it. I found I had to refill the resevoir after each bleed to keep the level where it needed to be.
I also found that my rear brakes are toasted, but the fronts are fine. I am suspecting the emergency brake cable tension might be to blame. Any other ideas?
Test driving proved the job successful. The brakes seem more responsive, but who knows how much of that assessment is just my mind telling me I did a good job.