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I’m using my initial time with our XKE as an intro to explaining how to change out brake fluids – it is a brief story about my introduction to the brakes on the lady - a yellow XKE, and why I think Dot 5 is a good idea.
When I refer to our ‘69 XKE coupe I always use the feminine. People have asked why a car is, of necessity, a she, and I always explain: When I have an affair, it is important, at least to me, that I be having said affair with a lady. YMMV
The story starts, as do many love stories, with a tragedy. My previous XKE was stolen and burnt. While I had not had that car long, I had figured out that I had to have one. Fortunately, a gentleman in Tulsa was selling a car. He had shown the car in the past, but he had moved onto an XK.
I still remember that first drive, 44 years ago, but feels like yesterday. Like a sip of fine wine, the drive home was heaven, though it did feel like the car didn’t want to coast as well as it should? This was born our when I walked past the front tire when opening the garage door and felt a whiff of warm air. The good news is that you can only get one finger thru the spokes to feel the front brake discs. That way you will only fry one finger when you touch a brake disc that has been dragging all the way from Tulsa to OKC.
Lesson 1. Don’t touch brake discs to see if they are hot. They probably are. Lesson 2, don’t buy a show car and think it is a daily driver. It probably isn’t.
As time went by, I fixed the drag in the brakes - tight ‘o’ ring in the brake servo valve. I also put in silicon brake fluid to replace the paint stripper some folks think is brake fluid, keeps from rotting the old girl’s clutch and brake seals.
That was 44 years and 140,000 miles ago. I haven’t had to replace any rubber components in either the brakes or clutch.
Since then, I have converted several cars, a ’73 Volvo 1800 ES, a ’70 MGB, a ’73 Pantera, and a ’60 Bugeye Sprite. And probably one or two I have forgotten.
This note is about how I am changing out the brake fluid in our ’73 Alfa Romeo Montreal. It happens to be the car I am currently working on - sorry the pictures are not of our Bugeye or XKE or Elise...
I use 99% isopropyl alcohol to flush Dot 3, Dot 4, or Dot 5.1 brake fluids from the system. These fluids are pretty soluble in iso, what doesn’t dissolve floats on the surface of the iso. By purging from the top of the calipers or clutch slave cylinder one can purge the glycol-based fluids quite effectively. And then one just continues to draw air through the system to evaporate the residual iso.
This photo shows my set-up, illustrated on our Montreal. The shop vac hose is over a hole in the green bottle cap. This creates a vacuum in the green bottle which is then transferred to the orange plaid bottle via the connecting hose. The orange plaid bottle is connected to the brake bleeder, which is opened a half turn.
The orange bottle collects most of the extracted paint remover, the plaid bottle keeps the paint remover out of the vacuum hose. Mostly.
Note the key-fob – if you don’t have a remote for your shop vac – you really need one.
To get started, crack open the brake bleeder on one of the calipers. Hook up the hose from the orange bottle, and urn on the vacuum. You will start pulling the old brake fluid out of the system. When the Dot 3 or 4 quits flowing I add 99% isopropyl alcohol to the brake reservoir and suck it through. Note, the iso is quite a bit less viscous so it will flow faster.
I do the above for every bleeder on all of the brake calipers until only clear isopropyl is coming out. A couple of flushes for each bleeder does the trick.
To see a video of this process, go to see the extraction in progress:
> Replacing DOT 3, 4 or 5.1 Brake Fluid with DOT 5 - Silicone Brake Fluid - SNClocks <
When I am getting no more iso in the jars, I next pull air through each bleeder until I get no more iso out of the caliper. Now it is time to purge with Dot 5. I recommend purging until it is obvious that only Dot 5 is coming out of each bleeder.
The purpose of this short article is not to weigh the advantages Dot 5 versus glycol-based brake fluids. There has been plenty of debate on that subject. This note just shows how to convert from paint remover to paint polish (note, I am sort of biased).
A great shot of what happens when the car on the lift leaks glycol-based brake fluid on the car parked under it:
When I refer to our ‘69 XKE coupe I always use the feminine. People have asked why a car is, of necessity, a she, and I always explain: When I have an affair, it is important, at least to me, that I be having said affair with a lady. YMMV
The story starts, as do many love stories, with a tragedy. My previous XKE was stolen and burnt. While I had not had that car long, I had figured out that I had to have one. Fortunately, a gentleman in Tulsa was selling a car. He had shown the car in the past, but he had moved onto an XK.
I still remember that first drive, 44 years ago, but feels like yesterday. Like a sip of fine wine, the drive home was heaven, though it did feel like the car didn’t want to coast as well as it should? This was born our when I walked past the front tire when opening the garage door and felt a whiff of warm air. The good news is that you can only get one finger thru the spokes to feel the front brake discs. That way you will only fry one finger when you touch a brake disc that has been dragging all the way from Tulsa to OKC.
Lesson 1. Don’t touch brake discs to see if they are hot. They probably are. Lesson 2, don’t buy a show car and think it is a daily driver. It probably isn’t.
As time went by, I fixed the drag in the brakes - tight ‘o’ ring in the brake servo valve. I also put in silicon brake fluid to replace the paint stripper some folks think is brake fluid, keeps from rotting the old girl’s clutch and brake seals.
That was 44 years and 140,000 miles ago. I haven’t had to replace any rubber components in either the brakes or clutch.
Since then, I have converted several cars, a ’73 Volvo 1800 ES, a ’70 MGB, a ’73 Pantera, and a ’60 Bugeye Sprite. And probably one or two I have forgotten.
This note is about how I am changing out the brake fluid in our ’73 Alfa Romeo Montreal. It happens to be the car I am currently working on - sorry the pictures are not of our Bugeye or XKE or Elise...
I use 99% isopropyl alcohol to flush Dot 3, Dot 4, or Dot 5.1 brake fluids from the system. These fluids are pretty soluble in iso, what doesn’t dissolve floats on the surface of the iso. By purging from the top of the calipers or clutch slave cylinder one can purge the glycol-based fluids quite effectively. And then one just continues to draw air through the system to evaporate the residual iso.
This photo shows my set-up, illustrated on our Montreal. The shop vac hose is over a hole in the green bottle cap. This creates a vacuum in the green bottle which is then transferred to the orange plaid bottle via the connecting hose. The orange plaid bottle is connected to the brake bleeder, which is opened a half turn.
The orange bottle collects most of the extracted paint remover, the plaid bottle keeps the paint remover out of the vacuum hose. Mostly.
Note the key-fob – if you don’t have a remote for your shop vac – you really need one.
To get started, crack open the brake bleeder on one of the calipers. Hook up the hose from the orange bottle, and urn on the vacuum. You will start pulling the old brake fluid out of the system. When the Dot 3 or 4 quits flowing I add 99% isopropyl alcohol to the brake reservoir and suck it through. Note, the iso is quite a bit less viscous so it will flow faster.
I do the above for every bleeder on all of the brake calipers until only clear isopropyl is coming out. A couple of flushes for each bleeder does the trick.
To see a video of this process, go to see the extraction in progress:
> Replacing DOT 3, 4 or 5.1 Brake Fluid with DOT 5 - Silicone Brake Fluid - SNClocks <
When I am getting no more iso in the jars, I next pull air through each bleeder until I get no more iso out of the caliper. Now it is time to purge with Dot 5. I recommend purging until it is obvious that only Dot 5 is coming out of each bleeder.
The purpose of this short article is not to weigh the advantages Dot 5 versus glycol-based brake fluids. There has been plenty of debate on that subject. This note just shows how to convert from paint remover to paint polish (note, I am sort of biased).
A great shot of what happens when the car on the lift leaks glycol-based brake fluid on the car parked under it:
