Brake fluid capacity?

[broady81]

Hey guys,

I'm currently preparing my 340 for rallying. Some of you may recognise it from ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0688002819



My question to you: I'd like to a complete replacement of the brake fluid. Mainly for piece of mind as I'm not sure when or if it has ever been done. How much brake fluid do you reckon it would take to do a full change?

Thanks

broady81

[MCHUDD]

Hi mate .
The brake fluid you need is DOT 4. Its not that expensive.
Just get a couple of litres. What ever you don't use,just keep for spare.
Cheers Mark.

[Speedy88]

As I remember, Chris filled up the master cylinder and after pumping it only went down about 1/3. So not a lot at all.

[Chris_C]

That is because I got you a good recon though... I've had bad recon master cyls that take 1.5l to bleed. Get a decent sized bottle (5 litres of dot 4 is under £20 when you dont buy it from halfords) and do 6 monthly changes if rallying

[broady81]

Do you reckon it's worthwhile getting competition stuff? Or do you think DOT 4 is DOT 4 regardless of the label?

Do I sense some rally experience Chris_C?

[macplaxton]

Although Chris has an aversion to cheapo master cylinders through bad luck, mine is still working okay.

My car doesn't have a had life though, although being an auto depends it's brakes. As some old granny had it and it had been laid up for ages, it also got new caliper seals and rear wheel cylinders. It didn't take much fluid to refill the system from scratch - less than a litre - and it has D.O.T. 5.1 in it. (Not the same thing as D.O.T. 5.0 silicone btw.)

[Chris_C]

Do I sense some rally experience Chris_C?

A lil bit, nothing major.

I havn't noticed any difference between fluids on mine, it gets through it a such a pace MacP is right though, if it's all working it really doesn't take much and a litre will be enough.

Stock brakes won't cook with new fluid and good technique, but bad technique will slip in. First time you boil them, change the fluid. A single boiling won't screw up your brakes for the rest of the event, but once it's heat cycled you'll notice it.

[macplaxton]

I was on the mobile posting earlier.

D.O.T. 5.1 has a higher boiling point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_fluid

My 66 used D.O.T. 5 silicone stuff, but that was a dry and fresh system end-to-end, so I was happy enough to start with that. I'd have my reservations about re-filling a previous glycol system with the stuff though.

[broady81]

Sweet. Will probably go with some 5.1 one then. I have seen some Castrol stuff that seems fairly good too, if the claimed boiling points are anything to go by

Full flush here I come!

[alf]

Personally i use 5.1 from OMV and it`s ok.