I have question for all those who work on their own cars.

I want to change the brake fluid on my wife's ES330. I have the fluid and everything but want to know if my approach is going to work.

I will use a turkey baster to remove the old fluid. Then refill the reservoir with new fluid. I will be careful to not remove too much brake fluid so I won't introduce air.

That is all I plan to do. Most people tell me that is sufficient.

So my question. Do I need to bleed the brakes at every wheel to do this properly? Or will it suffice to just change the fluid like I described?

Thanks for any help.

 

Well if you plan on doing a full fluid change you'll need to bleed the lines and the abs unit as well. That's the only way to actually change all of the fluid. I usually use a vacuum pump that i hook up to my air compressor, I find that it's the best way to change the fluid in the system and get all of the air out.

 

the brake fluid that sits in the reservoir absorbs moisture out of the air, so it needs to be changed, the fluid that sits in the calipers and lines close to the calipers has undergone numerous heating cycles, potentially creating small air pockets... the whole system has chemicals that wear out that prevent the wearing of the lines - copper is leached out of the lines when these corrosion inhibitors wear out... because of this, it is necessary to replace all of the fluid regularly (Every 2 years, roughly)

To do this, start with the turkey baster - it works well - get as much fluid as you possibly can out of the reservoir. Now, fill the reservoir with new fluid. If you can find a colored fluid (like ATE Super Blue) it will be really easy to tell when the old fluid has been replaced. Essentially, replace fluid in the reservoir, then start bleeding the brakes. A search of the forums will likely reveal the proper sequence, in general, though, bleed the longest brake line first, then work your way to the shortest brake line.

Bleed each caliper until the fluid has changed to new clean stuff, or has changed to the new color of fluid.

This is easiest with two people and this method does take some time, for sure. The easier way is to buy a vacuum pump and hook it up to each caliper, instead of pumping the brake on and off while opening/closing the bleeder a bunch of times, use the vacuum pump to suck out the fluid - only really requires opening the bleeder once.

One note though - please make sure you keep adding fluid to the reservoir - if you run out on accident, you will have to bleed the whole thing over again...

 

Thanks for the help. Do you guys like those speed bleeders? My wife gets so impatient and I would rather not deal with the drama of asking for her help bleeding the brakes.

 

i wouldn't use ATE Super Blue, it's easy for that fluid to stain your reservoir in that color too, and down the road will be hard to read how much fluid you have in there ;p

just do it the old fashined way, rear farthest away from reservoir first, then other rear, then front farthest, then closest...
have your wife help you, teach her to pump the brakes hehehe