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Date:         Tue, 8 Apr 2008 17:41:53 -0700
Reply-To:     Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject:      Re: How not to bleed the brakes. Help needed!
Comments: To: Greg Potts <greg@POTTSFAMILY.CA>
In-Reply-To:  <47FC0A91.5040509@pottsfamily.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

It's really messy removing the reservoir. Remove that filter screen right inside the reservoir opening, and such out all that you can . I use a turkey baster. You can't get it sucked out of the forward chamber. So you would probably need to remove the res at that point and clean it really well. If you really got 'lots of nasty looking black fluid' out of it, I'd be concerned about the MC perhaps. There's a whole range from 'OMG, now you have to replace every last part in the entire german car with new german parts and it'll cost ya about a grand' ...........all the way to Nno sweat, just bleed a bunch of decent Dot 3 or 4 bf through it, and see how it works, and if it feels good, has a firm pedal, slows down well, you're fine." Find the reasonable middle of that scale is my suggestion. Scott

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Greg Potts Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 5:15 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: How not to bleed the brakes. Help needed!

Hi Volks,

I bled the brakes on Dad's 1985 vanagon tonight; it's the first time that the brakes have been bled since he bought the van almost two years ago and the pedal was a bit softer than I like, even after new shoes were installed in the back and things readjusted.

The bleeding went well, with lots of nasty looking black fluid coming out and lots of nice clean fluid going in. I also got some nice bubbles out of the system that tell me the brakes are going to work much better now. But apparently one 475 ml bottle of DOT4 is not quite sufficient for the entire job.

So off I go back to Canadian Tire to pick up another. And when I get home and start to top up the resevoir I notice that this fluid doesn't seem to be pouring quite as easily as the last bottle did.

And then I look closer at the bottle, and see that it isn't DOT4 brake fluid, IT'S POWER STEERING FLUID.

I am not very happy with myself right now.

So the question is: Can I remove the resevoir and drain out the bad fluid, or should I have the local garage purge the entire system. Or is it not a big deal, as long as I don't put brake fluid in the power steering?

Unfortunately I don't have a bentley handy, it's in the other vanagon down at Dad's house and he isn't home at the moment.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts 1973/74/79 Westfakia "Bob the Tomato" 1985 Sunroof passenger van (winter custodian) 1987 Wolfsburg (taking delivery en route to EveryBus) www.busesofthecorn.com www.pottsfamily.ca

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