Zimm Posted January 13, 2010 Share Posted January 13, 2010 Hey all, I decided to do my 30k service on my car last weekend which included a flush of the brake fluid. I went to Schucks and got some fluid but I guess I grabbed the wrong stuff. I did the flush and all seemed well but now that I have done some reading it looks like I messed up. I did my flush with a DOT5 silicone based fluid. I plan to re-flush the system this weekend with the proper DOT3/4 fluid but I wanted to find out if I really messed something up here. I guess I need to ensure I get all the DOT 5 stuff out which shouldn't be too hard. Anything else I need to do to ensure this works out? Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
integroid Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 YOu want to flush it out without creating air pockets in the lines. You might want to pay someone that has an air powered bleeder system to do it for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimm Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 Well I set up an appointment with Outback Automotive (local shop) for tomorrow. I tried calling the dealer service folks but lets just say I now have more reason to not take my car there... Hopefully I didn't damage anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilT Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 You won't have damaged anything, but you will need to bleed the system for a loooooooooooong time to get it all out. Double Award Winning Legacy GT Wagon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimm Posted January 15, 2010 Author Share Posted January 15, 2010 Well I went down to Outback and they were able to get it cleaned out. It took 4+ bottles of new fluid to get it cleared out but all is well now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thx247 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 4 bottles is a lot. Next time this happens just drain the brake lines and start from scratch. It will be faster and use less fluid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimm Posted January 15, 2010 Author Share Posted January 15, 2010 I think that is what they did and it still took that much. The DOT5 fluid is tenacious and difficult to fully flush. It also is less dense than DOT3/4 fluid and will float on top of it (they do not mix). In either case, this will NOT happen again to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrad Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Running DOT5 in a 3 or 4 system will eventually eat out the seals. I know this from karting. But if you only ran the 5 for a little while it should be good. But I'd do another flush in a couple months or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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