I couldnt find it in any stickies..so here goes. Please dont flame I really did look hard and couldnt find anywhere. What I want to do is replace my brake fluid and power sterring fluid. Is this a do-it-yourself or do I really have to go to the dealer. Thanks ahead for any advice.

 

you can bleed your brake fluid all out and then add the new stuff by loosening the bleed valve to all the calipers one at a time or so..

you will need a buddy or someone to help you put the pressure back to them though.

the power steering you just keep adding to it..

all this is DIY..

 

I just had this done at a shop. Thaey used a suction tube to take out the power steering fluid. You have to use the OEM brake fluid when you do the brakes.

 

I was actually thinking of taking a turkey baster and just sucking out as much fluid as possible and then replace what I took out. It might not get all of it, but I figured I could get most of it out and would pretty much do the job...any thoughts???

 

just as long as you bleed the whole set up or you won't have brakes..

 

There is no "bleeding" involved per se when replacing the fluid since there's no air in the lines.

The order BTW, is right rear > left front > left rear > right front.

 

yea, thats the way I would do it.. he wants to suck it all out first..

 

Why? is it a special formulation? Can I get the correct Type of fluid at an autoparts store?

 

Get the Valvoline synthetic in the gold color container. Others in here and myself use it; it's DOT 3 and 4.

 

If you are going to go the turkey baster route for your power steering, do it a few times over the course of a say a month.

 

I tried the turkey baster route for the brake fluid but the opening is not directly over the main reservoir. Plus there's something blocking (filter mesh?) me from putting a tube into the reservoir to suck it out. I was thinking of installing some sort of attachment over the main reservoir so I can stick a silcone tube in to suck out the brake fluid. Have to bleed brakes is a pain in the a$$.

 

Why does order matter for draining and filling the system?

 

I do pass rear, driver rear, pass front, front driver

reason is to bleed the farthest brake line to the closest one, so it fills from bottom to top pretty much..

 

Who told you this? the dealer...cause its not true, DOT 3 or DOT 4 is perfect, not DOT5... dealer or not its prob all the same, my favorite is valvoline syn power.

 

Unfortunately, that is incorrect. You need to bleed in following order:
1) farthest primary line (RR)
2) closest primary line (LF)
3) Farthest secondary line (LR)
4) Closest secondary line (RF)

It's due to the way the master cylinder, dual proportioning valve, and actuator work.

Jae

 

From what I've gathered, valvoline syn power seems to be preferred by the majority. I take it we only need 1 qt for a full flush?

also have seen it's recommended about every 2 years. I'm going to change mine soon since I'm replacing my brakes and lines anyway. works out I'm at 24k.

 

You can use a turkey baster if you like. It will take longer than the bleed/flush method to replace all the fluid. Just plan to suck out the brake/ps reservoirs at least once a week for about 2 months just to be sure. You won't get all the fluid but it's a good start.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Flushed the system in the order described here, which made sense after looking at the routing diagram in the FSM. I used a vacuum pump to draw the fluid out, making the job very easy.