OK, so I think I boiled the brake fluid after the weekend at Texas Word Speedway. Now, I'm looking at changing the fluid to ATE Super Blue. I bought Speed Bleeders, so it shouldn't take me too long. However, I have a couple of questrions: Do you have to flush the old OEM fluid out with anything? If so, how? Also, how do you make sure that the ABS unit is flushed?

 

My personal opinion:
ATE fluid is expensive and unnnecessary. I also had no end of problems with fluid boiling over (expanding past the top of the reserviour) and air in the lines. I switched to Valvoline Synthetic and had no problems since (plus it's very available and cheap).

There is no special procedure for bleeding the ABS unit. Have your helper pump slowly (maybe 1 up/down stroke a second) and be sure you run the fluid through until you no longer see bubbles.

If you install speed bleeders or new lines, do it with the reserviour capped- this will help keep you from emptying the reserviour completely and shorten the bleed process.

I can't tell you how unhappy I was with the ATE, especially considering what I've spent. I've been racing on the Valvoline Synthetic for over a year now with no fade and no overflow.

 

I looked at the specs on the Valvoline - it has a dry/wet boiling points of 500/333. The ATE Super Blue is rated at 536/392. It would seem that if you had a problem with the ATE you would have a problem with the Valvoline.

 

I also have speedbleeders and ATE SuperBlue fluid sitting at home. I was planning on putting them in before TWS but did not get a chance to....anyways I wanted to know how do I know if I have boiled my brake fliud?

I was pretty aggressive on the brakes this past weekend and have noticed maybe slightly more brake fade yesterday...but I'm not sure if there's bubbles in the lines or what?

Anyways I plan on changing it sometime in the future. I will first remove as much of the stock brake fluid from the reserviour and then top off with the new blue stuff. This will make sure I have less fluid to pump out. Hopefully the old and new fluid will not mix too much.

BTW, I bought the ATE fluid for $11 a bottle so I cannot say they are expensive.

 

That would seem to be the case- but it's not. Maybe it was operator error, but I don't know how- I used the same technique, and it was on the same car ('99 Prelude).

I'll be flushing the stock Honda fluid in the S2k this weekend. BTW, I ran TWS this weekend as well and had no trouble with fluid expansion, at least not out of the reserviour- I did have some fluid fade at the end of Saturday's runs (I guess because it was hotter?).

My point is that I didn't have trouble with Valvoline- I had fluid fade with the Prelude when running stock and ATE, but no fade or any other trouble with Valvoline (at TWS). This was last year, too, in the summer, when it was much much hotter.

 

Hmmm, I bought a bottle of ATE for somewhere between $10-$15. That was easily enough to flush the whole system and have some left over for re-bleeding if necessary, so I really don't consider that very expensive.

As for flushing it, I found that the ATE fluid did not really tend to mix with the stock fluid, so it was very easy to tell when the stock fluid was gone and only ATE was in the lines.

Clark

 

marcucci: Ate has a higher boiling temperature than Valvoline, so I think the type of fluid was probably unrelated to your problem. I

 

I can't remember which I did first, SS lines or ATE, but I bled the &*$% out of them 3 times and still had the problem. The first bleed I did with Valvoline fixed the problem. I think I ran through 2L of the ATE before one complete Valvoline flush fixed the problem. Maybe I just got some old stuff, I bought it from a local shop.

[B][QUOTE]
Expensive?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by marcucci
[B]You mentioned yourself you can bleed in about 1L- which is what mine takes. I buy the Valvoline in 1L bottles and use a whole bottle when I bleed, which is fairly often (every 6 months, or 3000 miles). I don't see how the plastic bottle would leach much more moisture in than plastic would. I don't keep it around long, but wouldn't recommend it, either.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mikey
[B]
It actually takes me about 1.2 liters, so I always have to open a second can to totally flush the system.