Green Brake fluid + bad tester
Thread Starter
Senior Member
SL Member
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 800
From: Mesa, AZ USA
Green Brake fluid + bad tester
Bought an ITEQ brake fluid tester from amazon and went around all our vehicles testing the fluid for water. All were good except the lads XB mk1, straight into the red. It lit up like a Christmas tree.
OK, so lets flush out all the fluid.
Put the front end up and with a screwdriver between the edge of the disc and the outside of the inspection hole, I was able to push both pistons back and shove that fluid into the master cylinder. Used a mighty vac to slurp out as much as possible, but they put a baffle halfway back so I couldn't slurp it all out. Fine, refilled the master with some opened fluid that seemed to measure OK and pumped that thru the left front caliper until the color looked good. Added another 12ozl brand new bottle after the level got low, and ended up pumping all that thru.
Measuring the fluid we were getting out, it continued to go into the red. Somethings wrong???
Bought a new large sealed bottle from Wallyworld - wiped out the mightyvac container and poured some of the new fluid in. Put the dried off tester in and straight into the red. Great, so the tester is useless.
OK, continuing, we decide to just purge based on the fluid color. Both front discs fine.
Both rear drums, the fluid came out a nice forest green color. Obviously not good.
Same process, pumped a lot of fluid thru until the color got better. Pretty much used up the big 32 oz bottle
I think we are OK'ish, but something turned that fluid green. We suspect there must be some copper in the rear brake system or the ABS unit, but I can't imagine where. So if you know, let me know. Thanks in advance. Oh and the last flush we did was in March '22. Added 10k since then, now at 170K miles.
... and while we were at it, we added 25 clicks each side to the "self adjusters" on the rear shoes to take up the slack, as we could tell by how much the handbrake pulled up that the adjusters weren't working. Again (these were brand new too)
We put Akebono shoes in the back and they are doing much better than the previous (centric) shoes. Nice mirror smooth drums and not a lot of dust
OK, so lets flush out all the fluid.
Put the front end up and with a screwdriver between the edge of the disc and the outside of the inspection hole, I was able to push both pistons back and shove that fluid into the master cylinder. Used a mighty vac to slurp out as much as possible, but they put a baffle halfway back so I couldn't slurp it all out. Fine, refilled the master with some opened fluid that seemed to measure OK and pumped that thru the left front caliper until the color looked good. Added another 12ozl brand new bottle after the level got low, and ended up pumping all that thru.
Measuring the fluid we were getting out, it continued to go into the red. Somethings wrong???
Bought a new large sealed bottle from Wallyworld - wiped out the mightyvac container and poured some of the new fluid in. Put the dried off tester in and straight into the red. Great, so the tester is useless.
OK, continuing, we decide to just purge based on the fluid color. Both front discs fine.
Both rear drums, the fluid came out a nice forest green color. Obviously not good.
Same process, pumped a lot of fluid thru until the color got better. Pretty much used up the big 32 oz bottle
I think we are OK'ish, but something turned that fluid green. We suspect there must be some copper in the rear brake system or the ABS unit, but I can't imagine where. So if you know, let me know. Thanks in advance. Oh and the last flush we did was in March '22. Added 10k since then, now at 170K miles.
... and while we were at it, we added 25 clicks each side to the "self adjusters" on the rear shoes to take up the slack, as we could tell by how much the handbrake pulled up that the adjusters weren't working. Again (these were brand new too)
We put Akebono shoes in the back and they are doing much better than the previous (centric) shoes. Nice mirror smooth drums and not a lot of dust
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
sciontc_mich
Scion tC 1G Suspension & Handling
4
Dec 1, 2017 09:21 PM
REZ
Scion xB 1st-Gen Owners Lounge
3
Jun 21, 2009 02:18 AM
OakToddler
Scion xA/xB 1st-Gen Drivetrain & Power
11
Nov 24, 2007 01:48 AM