Blazemaster

iTrader: (24)

I think my 04 needs new brake fluid, but have not seen a DIY on this in the DIY section. I saw the thread on how to change brake pads, and seems pretty simple. It mentioned that if you're chaning pads that are extremly worn, you may have to open up the brake fluid reservoir underneath the car. Is that how you flush out the old fluid? I think I seen the brake fluid section near the engine bay somewhere last time I popped the hood. Any pointers? And what brand's brake fluid are recommended here?

dhwang80

iTrader: (13)

motul rbf600

i changed out my brake fluid via the brake bleeds.

Black_Sunshine

Brake fluid should actually be changed every 2-3 years. You may notice that the fluid in the cylinder is darker than new fluid.

The way to do this at home is gravity bleeding. Just take off the master cylinder cap and open the bleeder valves (have a container under each obviously). You can also do them one at a time.

Add fluid as it drains, don't let the master cylinder run dry. When the fluid is coming out clean, close that valve. An extra set of eyes may help here. If you do one at a time, work from the furthest caliper, i.e. RR, LR, RF, LF.

The other option is to take it to a shop and have the sytem power bled.

JETPILOT

iTrader: (51)

Pressure bleed the system yourself at home for the cost of paying someone else to do it. Get a Motive bleeder system. It makes bleeding the brakes an easy one man operation.

Simply bleed the caliper until the color of the fluid changes. After bleeding all 4 corners your system fluid will be changed.

If you don't track the car then Motul 600 is a monumental waste of money. It is more hygroscopic than regular off the shelf fluid and will neeed to be changed more often. Unless you need the heat protection from track duty then don't waste your money. ATE Super Blue is half the price and offers almost all the protection if you really wanted to go crazy. Just get standard off the shelf DOT 3 brake fluid.

http://z1auto.com/prodmore.asp?model...ng&prodid=2741

JET

ARMSTRONGARMS

iTrader: (65)

Jet do you have/or used that flushing kit from Z1? I think i might pull the trigger on that.

j.arnaldo

Does any of you guys know just how much does a brake shop charge for such
a job? I'm mainly an oil-change & tune-up DIY'selfer.

ARMSTRONGARMS

iTrader: (65)

http://z1auto.com/prodmore.asp?model...ng&prodid=2741

just ordered it hope it works well.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (4)

Gravity bleeding would take forever. Pressure bleeding is also pretty slow. Not that bad but don't expect the fluid to come out like it does with vacuum or old fashioned pumping. Pressure bleeders cannot exert the same force as your brake pedal does.

Also if your pressure bleeder loses it's seal on the MC, hello brake fluid pouring out and onto your car, garage floor etc...

Black_Sunshine

...and good-bye paint, so be careful. Also, gravity bleeding, while relatively slow, is still not that bad. We're not talking a huge volume of fluid.

Let us know how that works out for you, I may get one myself if it turns out ok.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (4)

After doing the pedal method, pressure bleeders and vacuum bleeding, I'm tend toward vacuum bleeding. As long as you get no leaks from the bleeder screw, you're fine. Especially when I can use my vacuum tool with a few cheap parts to convert it to a brake bleeder.

Morris

iTrader: (1)

A nissan dealer charges about $90 to flush the system if you provide the fluid.

JETPILOT

iTrader: (51)

Presssure bleeders work best if accompanied by someone pushing the pedal. You won't have to open or close the bleeder screw each time you reset the pedal for another push so you can push the pedal by yourself and don't need another person.

JET

Blazemaster

iTrader: (24)

I'm hoping that someone can help me here, I just tried changing my badly worn front brake pads and am having problem compressing the pistons back into the caliper. I read that the pistons adjust to the width of pads as they wear, so my pistons are really really pushed out...LOL I tried cleaning the pistons area with brake cleaner, and still aren't able to compress it enough to go over the thicker new pads, any help?

dhwang80

iTrader: (13)

loan one of those C-clamps at Autozone.

may want to open your brake fluid reservoir cap and let out some fluid to avoid overspilling.

JETPILOT

iTrader: (51)

Brembo's or regular?

JET

Blazemaster

iTrader: (24)

where's the fluid reservior cap? is that under the hood or is that the rubber capped thing on the brake rotor? I went under the hood in the brake fluid section and found 2 containers for brake fluid, one was round and one was rectangular shaped. I drained the ones from the round cylinder shaped ones because that one seemed dirtier. After I did that and it was still hard to compress the pistons. I have one of the C clamps that I bought, this one to be exact...
http://www.autozone.com/selectedZip,.../selectZip.htm
Was it hard to compress it with the clamp, when I applied the clamp to the piston, it was too hard for me to try and squeeze it down and the piston wouldn't move at all.

This is on a 04 non-brembo setup.

thinking

iTrader: (4)

Open the bleeder (use 10mm wrench) at the caliper and the piston will go in easily (be sure to have a tube and bottle connected to the bleeder valve first).

eddie lee

Go get a power bleeder + valvoline syn. brake fluid from Kragen. The other rout. is to ask one of your family member to do the manual bleeding.

Here is a article from a BMW website on how to do brake bleeding, which is similar to our Z: http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/tech...ing_Brakes.htm

RZander

Question.

I'll be changing my Brake Fluid next week to get ready for a DE at Gateway Raceway. I'll be using Motul RBF 600 to hopefully help my brake fade issue.

The question is, how much do i need to buy? 2 containers? I saw a good write-up here

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....ke+fluid+refil

but I have an 2006 Enthusiast, i.e., the thread is for an unknown year track model (Brembos). So I don't know if the total capacity from vehicle year and model are different (I'm sure Brembo pistons are larger and therefore require more fluid).

I've checked my Electronic Service Manual and it does not have a number (x Liters).

So how many bottles of (500mL/bottle) Motul do I need?

Thanks in advance.

Morris

iTrader: (1)

You can change the fluid with a little less than 2 bottles. I have used different colors fuilds, and that makes it easy to tell how much you need. However, you won't have much to spare if you make in mistakes (like spill or let the master cylinder run dry - don't do that). So, I would buy 3 bottles just in case.