Metal Guru

Question for all those who have possibly done this: how have you got all of the blue brake fluid out of the 4 chambers in the brake fluid reservoir in a flush to gold? Short of removing the reservoir and draining everything (big potential mess) I'm in need of a creative way to do it.
Our wonderful and efficient search engine was of no value
Thanks.

Vandit

I'm only guessing, but bleed all corners till you start seeing the new fluid.

jimq

I use a turkey baster to suck out as much of the old fluid as possible. If you get to low you will maybe get air in the system. Refill with fresh before bleeding.

crg53

What Jim said, I use a "Mightyvac" bought it at the local automotive store, handy for all kind of things.

B. Elliott

I've used everything from hand vacuum pumps to syringes and turkey basters to get the fluid out. After filling with the new stuff, bleed, bleed and bleed until the new fluid comes out clean.

Metal Guru

There are 4 chambers to the reservoir: two for front and rear brake circuits, respectively, a forward chamber for the power brake boost supply and a rear chamber for the clutch. The turkey baster will only pull fluid from the center two chambers.

I've already blown thru 4 liters of gold and still don't have all the blue out.

The new plan is to disconnect and drain all chambers from the fittings in the bottom. I'll fashion a large funnel and drain it to a pan.

jimq

If you get air in the ABS system you will go thru a whole lot more fluid getting it out. Whats the big deal getting it all out?

Metal Guru

**** re-tentativeness

DWS964

I understand and feel your pain. This is why I stopped using Ate Blue. An interesting (possible scenario) conclusion from this exercise is - When we are doing a brake fluid flush, are we really getting a full displacement of old fluid?
To get all of the blue (tint) out of my system, I found that the turkey baster method of removing absolutely all available old fluid was essential. Note that you have to be patient after sucking out the middle chamber, wait for it to refill slowly from the other chambers until a new overall level is achieved. Then refill with clean fluid, and purge the ABS bomb through a couple cycles. The clutch chamber is the "highest" chamber, in that if the clutch circuit blows out, it will not drain all the fluid from the brake circuits. So be sure to get it cleared out early in the sequence.
After going through 2 cans of Gold and still seeing Blue, I switched to Valvoline Synpower DOT4 (cheaper, but actually still a fairly high boiling point fluid) and continued the purging until I was satisfied that the Blue tint was gone (and the reservoir was no longer stained). Then, I proceeded to do a "normal" flush with the Ate Gold. (actually switched to Motul RBF on the next flush).
Good Luck.

FeralComprehension

Same here; IME it's never really 'all out', so just bleed to lighter blue and call it good. If you do it every couple years it shouldn't matter too much that it's not a perfect swap.

Mike_964

Sounds to me like brake fluid changes are getting more complicated than need be. And I usually overcomplicate things
I run with superblue and every second year I change it.
I start at the right rear corner pumping out until the reservoir is almost empty, then fill with regular. pump until it is almost non blue. Switch to the left rear, then to the right front and finally the left front. moving closer and closer to the reservoir.
Then I repeat with superblue.
I track the car with regular brake calipers and track pads and have never overheated. Actually on a small track I have had one side smoking due to heat, but no brake fade.
So I decide that my procedure must be good enough.
But of course the clutch should also be bleed, I only did that once.

Metal Guru

Success.
For me to try the turkey baster method; by the time I pulled the fluid all out it would be mid-July
So, being naturally impatient, I executed plan B.
So I removed the reservoir from the inner fender, disconnected the forward blue hose which feeds the ABS pump and the manifold for the calipers and drained the reservoir.
Some clean-up on the floor of the trunk was required.
Moral of the story: Going from gold to blue seems to be less of an issue than vice versa. If you have blue (no pun intended), stay with blue.