henock

Now, whenever i turn they key to on, without turning the engine on, i get a "Malfunction Indicator Light". I called a few dealerships, and they say that it has nothing to do with it.. just perhaps emissions problems.. But another thing, I noticed before and after i added the fluid the container had a blue tint to it. After i started the car a few times i now notice it's a brown/reddish tint

also, whenever the car comes to a complete stop i get a CRUNCK noise from the brakes.. anyone know what's going on?!

gepetto

in the manual, i think, they say the "malfunction indicator" is the same as the CEL...do a diagnostic and tell us what comes up

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Blue tinted fluid? Where in the world did you add the brake fluid to? I'm thinking you put brake fluid in the power steering system?

Starting the car a few times doesn't mix brake fluid. Now I'm totally

henock

I did the ECU Diagnostic, and i got 5 long, 5 short pulses. I got No Failure Recorded/Detected from the ECU decoder. Wow. If there's no problem, I can go ahead and reset the ECU so it wont show that light, right? If so, I just saved myself 70-90 bucks for a worthless Dealer "We'll run it through the computer and tell you what's up".

But, I have a problem with the noises I'm getting from the brakes at full stop.. any ideas?

I just double checked, and the brake fluid tank should be on the right side of the engine bay, (looking at it from the front) and close to the back, right? Well, it must be.. i looked at the cap and it said to only use DOT3 brake fluid, etc etc.

I noticed brake fluid is clear.. and when i put it in the plastic tank, the color changed to blue.. was it bad that i just filled it up, or should i have replaced it entirely?

so.. just so i know, the MIL thing is the same as the "Check Engine" light?

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Brake fluid is clear. Well at least regular dot 3 or dot 4 is. Did you use a dot 3 or 4? What brand did you use? I hope you didn't mix a synthetic fluid with the standard stuff. I've never heard of brake fluid changing colors upon topping off, unless your mixing two entirely different types. Check the container of the fluid you put in to make sure it's the right stuff. Maybe it's just blue brake fluid.

MIL / Check Engine / CEL / SES = all the same thing.

Strange your getting the light with 0505 coming up which indicates nothing is wrong. Then again, your brake fluid turned blue too. Perhaps your car is haunted.

iwannabmw

iTrader: (3)

Ummm, doesn't this light always come on when the key is the on position without the engine running? I think you just happened to notice this after you added the fluid, there's no relation.

The color thing is interesting though.

henock

Castrik GT LMA Brake Fluid

"Exceeds DOT 3 and 4 and all leading auto manufacturer's requirements."

http://www.ps2w.com/dsc_001.jpg

i know that pic dosent show it really well, but that fluid is red/brown looking

jayanth

try cleaning your disks and pads with a brake cleaner and wash them thoroughly using a water jet you should be OK.
peace,
Jay

henock

also, is there a way to get rid of a small amt of brake fluid? i think i put a bit too much. it's about 2mm below the "max" line, but when i open up the cap, the liquid is at the bottom of the neck of the container.

i know, i'm a newb. Hopefully the pending frankencar install (still waiting..) will beef me up

White96MaxSE

I have a glass turkey baster with a rubber bulb on the top that I always use to suck the fluid out of the master cylinder brake fluid reservoir. I use a empty 1 gallon jug and hold it near to the reservoir as I suck fluid out and then carefully place the turkey baster in the jug and squeeze it to unload the brake fluid without spilling it anywhere on the car (it will eat paint so be careful!)

You can buy a turkey baster at a hardware store I think. Yes, Your mom or wife uses a turkey baster to baste a turkey!

Great tool for brake fluid, for changing fluid in the reservoir of the power steering as well.

I bleed my brake system every year to remove the water from my brake system since brake fluid attracts water which can damage the brake system.

I normally use the turkey baster to suck out a lot of fluid from the master cylinder, refill it with fresh fluid and then gravity bleed all of the calipers to clean out the entire brake system, making sure not to let the brake cylinder run dry during the process and then you won't have to clear the air out of them when you are done flushing the lines.

One last thing I do is top off the brake master cylinder reservoir to the max line when I change all of the brake pads, then as the brake pads wear down I can check how much of the brake pads are left at a glance at the level of the brake fluid. A drop from the max line down to halfway between max and min shows that about half of the brake pad is worn down.

Remember though that the front brake pads wear out first since they are used more, so you want to check them and replace them first.

I have clean as new brake fluid, I have never ground my brake rotors, and the brakes don't pull at all indicating that I don't have any warpage ( I always torque my wheels when I rotate the tires once around at 30 lb/ft, then 55 lb/ft and finally 87 lb/ft to prevent warpage of the rotors), and the Max has 190,000 miles on it now!

Hope this helps.

White96MaxSE