Brake bleeder poll-To push or to pull

[dragonle87]

A headache? It's takes less time than it took you to type this reply

I was looking through Motive's website and trying to figure out their product. But I was lost with the caps to the brake reservoir with DIY kit or purchasing each one. Meanwhile my friend showed me the one-man bleeder hose website & thought it's a better way to bleed.

 

[48548]

Hmmm.... I serviced my brakes on my 2005 silverado for the first time a few months ago... The truck has 20,000 miles on it. Well I wanted to replace the fluid. I used a mity vac to get the fluid out of the master cylinder and added new dot 4 fluid(large bottle to cover all the wheels), then had the woman pump as I opened each one at a time. I will say this, for a vehicle that is 5 years old with low miles, all the fluid except the master cylinder plastic tank, was all black. So what does that mean? I think it means in my eyes, you must change your brake fluid out because it looked bad, maybe was good, but I don't like the way it looked. The only way I knew it was dirty was to change it. Also I am in AZ and the vehicle was garage kept.... So I don't see how water got in there and I change my own oil and never opened the master cylinder because it was on the full mark on the tank.

 

[LAROKE]

I used the miti for a few years on my old truck. When I had to replace a hydraulic throwout bearing (slave cylinder) in my Renegade, some of the Jeep forums said the mitivac would not work. You had to use the pressure bleeder. Don't know if that's true but it prompted me to get the Motive pressure bleeder at that point. Also got the adapters for my old trucks. Once you try blow, you'll nebber go back to suckin'

 

[Stick]

Hmmm.... I serviced my brakes on my 2005 silverado for the first time a few months ago... The truck has 20,000 miles on it. Well I wanted to replace the fluid. I used a mity vac to get the fluid out of the master cylinder and added new dot 4 fluid(large bottle to cover all the wheels), then had the woman pump as I opened each one at a time. I will say this, for a vehicle that is 5 years old with low miles, all the fluid except the master cylinder plastic tank, was all black. So what does that mean? I think it means in my eyes, you must change your brake fluid out because it looked bad, maybe was good, but I don't like the way it looked. The only way I knew it was dirty was to change it. Also I am in AZ and the vehicle was garage kept.... So I don't see how water got in there and I change my own oil and never opened the master cylinder because it was on the full mark on the tank.

Don't let the color of the fluid fool you. Just because it is dark or otherwise discolored doesn't mean that the brake fluid is bad. I've seen clean looking fluid that tested well over 5% water, and I've seen dirty looking fluid that was under 0.5% water. The only real way to tell is by using a dip strip to check for copper contamination or by using a refractometer to test for water contamination. Also, just because you live in Arizona and keep your vehicle in the garage doesn't mean that you aren't prone to having your brake fluid contaminated by water. Most of the water in the system is going to come from condensation of atmospheric air, so just by moving from a hot environment to a cool one could be enough to do it.

Really, for as cheap as brake fluid is, and as easy as it is to bleed brakes for a DIY'er, changing the brake fluid every two years or so is pretty cheap insurance.

 

[48548]

Now you know why I changed it, it was cheap and I didn't know how it would look after being 5 years old and low miles, but I changed everything else why be cheap was the way I looked at it. I used dot 4 because that was what I liked.

 

[Jaralaccs]

FYI,
Honda says every two years just did the updated factory training last year on brake systems and they mentioned it several times.

..apparently not enough times..
its every 3 years

 

[scott37300]

..apparently not enough times..
its every 3 years

I just read the manual for the 08 civic and it says 3 years, called the local dealer and they confirmed 3 years.

 

[zoomzoomjeff]

So if I go with the motive what adaptors do you recomend? I see they make a square and round "universal" that look a little ackward to use. And they make manufacturer specific caps that are around 30 bucks a peice that look nicer. But I have a ford, woman has a chevy, mom has a honda(which from what I read they don't have an adaptor for yet) so right there would be around 100 bucks just in adaptors. Should I just buy the vehicle specific adaptors as needed or are the universal ones OK?

Get a vehicle specific cap!!! I ordered a specific cap for my Mazda--works like a charm. Used the universal cap on my wife's Toyota.....leaking fluid everywhere. Twice. (because I forgot the second summer)

 

[scott37300]

Get a vehicle specific cap!!! I ordered a specific cap for my Mazda--works like a charm. Used the universal cap on my wife's Toyota.....leaking fluid everywhere. Twice. (because I forgot the second summer)

I'm 99% sure I"m going with the mityvac bleeder. The motive caps are around 30 bucks a peice and I need them for multiple manufacturers so I would end up spending to much on just caps. Not worth it to me. The mityvac I can use on any vehicle without aditional adaptors.

 

[scott37300]

Well I ordered a mityvac brake bleeder kit today from tooltopia.

http://www.tooltopia.com/mityvac-mv6835.aspx

I think after this thread both the motive and the mityvac have some advantages and dis-advantages. I think I would have been happy with either one of them. The main reason for my decision was I didn't like how the "universal" adaptors looked for the motive and in order to do different manufacturers of cars you have to buy 30 dollar adapters for each vehicle.

Hopefully it will work out good since it was 129.00. The only complaint I read about it was that it would **** some air in around the bleeder valves. But read if you put some greae around the threads it will seal it up.

Anyone have advice or tips on using this thing?