Good Day,

I need to know how to drain the brake fluid from my '02 Montero Limited. The fluid is almost slushy like and is instantly activating the accumulator when the brake peddle is pushed. I am hoping draining and refilling with fresh fluid will fix the issue but I need to know just how to drain the fluid completely.

Thank you for the help in advance.

KPowell

PS I have a service repair manual but it is not clear on how to drain the system completely.

 

dont.


Bleed it, one corner at a time.

 

Use a hand held vacuum pump to remove as much fluid from the brake reservoir as you can. Refill it with fresh fluid and flush out all the lines one by one. You have to do this in the following order - Right Rear, Left Rear, Right Front, Left Front. You'll use up lots of fluid while flushing the rear lines just because they are long way away from the master cylinder. Make sure you have enough on hand. Keep an eye on the fluid level while doing this - you do not want to suck in any air. The job goes much faster if you have a helper to run the pedal for you when doing the line flushing.

One question you need to figure out is - why your fluid got so crappy in the first place? Is this a new for you vehicle that lacked maintenance or some other reason for such state of affairs. Otherwise you might be back in the same situation not too far in the future.

 

Okay. The brakes were not bled in the correct order and were not bled one at a time..... thus making the situation worse. Yes, HunterD, the vehicle was recently purchased in November 2014 and seemed to be well taken care of. Obviously I should have been more detail oriented when I made the purchase...... And considering why the fluid became so nasty had not occurred to me..... : O...hopefully flushing out the system correctly will work.

Thank you.

 

Brake fluid is extremely hydroscopic. It attracts moisture like a magnet. It's best to bleed the system ie: change fluid every two years. I've been doing this for years on all my cars and haven't run into any caliper/wheel cylinder issues. Also change your antifreeze and power steering fluid also.

 

If you are concerned about not getting all of the bad fluid out, you can do the following:

Bleed the system as best as you can.
Fill the reservoir with new good fluid.
Drive around for couple of weeks or month.
Repeat the bleed procedure.

This will clear out all the old fluid from the lines. Driving and using the system will purge out anything in the ABS module and any old gunk that was not removed with the first bleed will get diluted and suspended in the fresh fluid. After you do a second bleed you most likely get 99% of the old fluid removed out of your system.

 

Hunter, when I change fluid I just drain M/C with a turkey baster as best I can. Then fill reservoir with fresh fluid. Go to rear right caliper and start bleeding. That is the farthest spot from the M/C. When the fluid starts coming out clear, the line has new fresh fluid in it. Now just do the others the same way. make sure to check levels in reservoir so it doesn't go empty and suck air.

 

Yep, that is exactly what I do, except I have to use a little vacuum pump. I'd get dope slap if I were to steak a turkey baster from the kitchen
I noticed that it is hard to get all fluid out of the reservoir because of the little ridges on the bottom of it. That's why I was suggesting to do it in two turns. I think it would make it especially difficult to remove all of the old fluid when as Kristy described the fluid being "slushy". My though was - get as much of it as you can, bleed system, repeat process once again after fer weeks. This will assure you got very good clean out of all contaminated fluid.

 

I am curious why Kristy would have dirty fluid. Oh and that explains why the turkey tasted funny on Thanksgiving too.