First off, I would like to thank everyone who responded to my request for
comments on the
Motive Products' Power Bleeder. All of the replies contributed to my
thoughts on what type
of bleeder might makes sense for me.
I also have a few long winded comments/observations to pass along, for
what they're worth!
There were a couple of references to using a turkey baster to remove old
fluid from brake
reservoirs before flushing or bleeding. I don't care much for turkey
basters for this purpose.
Once fluid is sucked up in them, they tend to dribble, so you run the
risk of getting fluid on
other stuff in the engine compartment, or maybe on a fender. Since brake
fluid is a pretty
good paint stripper, this is undesirable. Even if it's silicone based,
you probably don't want
that stuff on your paint either, because it can cause fish eyeing later
on if you ever have to
repaint that area. Silicone is very very difficult to remove.
For some cars this dribbling may be easy to deal with, but on others,
like mine for instance,
a reservoir may be located in an awkward place making control more
difficult. Instead I use
a 1/2 liter chemical resistant squeeze bottle and rarely lose a drop of
withdrawn fluid.
These bottles are kind of expensive, so if you don't want to spend the
bucks for one, you can
get a cheaper alternative in the cosmetic section of your local drug or
grocery store. I don't
think these come in 1/2 liter or 1/2 quart sizes, but maybe beauty supply
stores sell larger
ones. You'll want one with a screw-on nipple so you can stick it into the
reservoir, or slip a
flexible tube on it for deeper reservoirs.
Usually these bottles are used for flushing brake fluids rather than
bleeding. I think many
of the follow-up posts used the term bleed for both. My experience has
been that they are
not quite the same, unless both are being done at the same time. Usually
the purpose of
bleeding is to remove air from the system . On my car, no matter how much
fluid I've
moved through the system, one single bleed has never accomplished this.
Usually it takes
3 to 5, with driving sessions between. On the other hand, when I've only
flushed, air wasn't
an issue and I just ran lots of fresh fluid through to remove as much of
the old fluid as
possible in one session. By the way, you will never get all of the old
fluid out unless you
completely disassembly all of the hydraulics, including the tubing and
Tees. When I did
this on my car back in the late 80s after it had sat undriven for 15
years, I found lots of
nooks and crannies that still had Girling Crimson fluid residue in them.
Prior to parking
the car, I hadn't used this stuff for at least 10 years and had done lots
of flushing in
between.
A couple of more comments on flushing. When I flush, not only do I remove
all of the old
fluid from the reservoirs, I also press the pistons into their calipers.
Be sure to empty the
reservoirs before doing this, by the way!! I also keep bottles of
previously opened brake
fluid for cleaning out the reservoirs. I squirt it in, swish it around,
then suck it out. And I
always use freshly open fluid for the actual bleeding and flushing.
Okay, so here's my plan. I've decided against buying a Power Bleeder or
any of the others
mentioned. Before posting my question, I hadn't even thought about making
my own, but
thanks to the responses I got, I think this makes sense. This may not be
the best option for
everyone, but I think it is for me.
One of my biggest complaints about the Eezibleed is that I have to
deflate a tire to 10-15
PSI for use as a pressure source, then have re-inflate it when done. Not
THAT big a deal,
but still an annoyance. I could use my compressor, I suppose, but I've
never felt
comfortable doing that. See the comments below about sealing. So, using a
garden sprayer
as a pressure source seems like a simple solution. And as it happens, I
have an old one in the
garage I was planning to toss. But there's nothing wrong with the pump
part, so I'm going
to recycle it as a pressure source, instead. I do have one issue with the
ones shown on the
web sites, though. I'm not sure putting brake fluid in a garden sprayer
meant for water based
fluids is a good idea. Even if it doesn't leach chemicals from the
plastic, it may not do the
seals much good. For this reason I'm just going to use mine as an
Eezibleed pressure source,
only. The Eezibleed does needs some attention, but nothing serious.
Some cars have large transparent reservoirs, so using a modified sprayer
as a direct pressure
source for these is probably okay, but my reservoirs are small and not
transparent, so I want to
included the Eezibleed fluid bottle in the circuit.
There are deck sprayers available that can be used with oil based paints,
but they're more
expensive than garden sprayers. I have one of these, but it has already
had oil based deck
varnish in it.
My other complaint about the Eezibleed is that the larger stamped sheet
metal reservoir
adapter caps that come with it are difficult to get to seal. Quite a few
people have told me
they have filled the bottle with brake fluid, screwed on the reservoir
adapter cap, applied what
they thought was a safe pressure and blew brake fluid all over their
engine compartments
because the cap wasn't sealed! This has happened to me, too. The safest
way to do this is to
start with an empty bleeder bottle, lower the level in the reservoir to
an inch or so below the
top, screw the cap on, then apply pressure to see if the seal is good.
Then you can fill the
bottle and proceed. I think the main problem with these caps is that they
are not rigid enough.
By the way, I bought one of those Pep Boy caps shown on one of the web
sites. The
diameter was correct, but the threads were wrong- at least for my Girling
reservoirs. I plan to
check around to see if there is a more rigid cap available. The Eezibleed
kit does come with
a thicker plastic cap that fits, but it's too flexible- made of nylon, I
think. I have never been
able to get it to seal. In fact, I've tightened it to the point where it
popped off the reservoir.
I'm hoping to find either a cast aluminum or hard plastic cap. Another
thought I've had is to
encase the sheet metal cap in fiber glass to stiffen it up a bit.
Of course none of this solves the problem of the rectangular snap-on
reservoir covers, but
maybe I can make or buy something that will work.
Enough wind for now. I'm sure there are as many opinions on this as there
are people on these
lists. Feel free to add yours.
Roland
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