i recently bought an s4 and i looked at the clutch fluid and it was hella dark and dirty. can anybody tell me how to change that?

 

loosen the bleeder on the clutch slave, open the slave master cap. Pusht he clutch pedal in and out a few times untl all the fluid squirts out (will be messy so hookup a tube to the bleeder). The pedal is going to get stuck to the floor, so you'll have to manualy pull it back up.

Put the new fluid in, and bleed like you do brakes until you have good pedal pressure.

Also, IIRC the blackness is caused by either dirt or a dissolving boot, which may mean the slave will need replacement soon. I think a slave is only around $40 from atkins or so.

 

I think either nopi.com or summit racing has tokico master and slave cylinders for like $60 for both.

 

Hm... my fluid was black too, and I couldn't figure out why. I suppose I should dig up a slave cylinder, rebuild, and replace sometime soon.

Personally, I just swapped my fluid out with a turkey baster. Suck old fluid out, add new fluid. Repeat several times and it's decent.

-=Russ=-

 

its shitty. it's MUCH easier if you have a 1 man bleeder kit, which you can get at any auto parts store for like $5.

The turkey baster method might work, but if you're going through the trouble anyways you should probably bleed the system.

do NOT!!!! hit the clutch pedal and release it without that cap on there, or you WILL get brake fluid IN YOUR EYE.

Just a warning

 

Usually the slave cylinder leaks fluid when it goes out which isn't very often from what I've seen. I forget the exact numbers but I think I spend around 45 bucks at napa for both rebuild kits so if you're not tight on money, it wouldn't hurt to do both of them.

 

i have made a bleeder system for this very thing, and I have found it comes in quite handy for other things. It works on brakes, fuel tanks, anything you want to pull out of a line or a tank without the risk of explosion as in the fuel tank. I take an old pickle jar, (glass), and a small piece of brake line from the parts store, about $2-3 dollars. Then cut the line in two. I also purchase 15-20' of vacumm line. I put both halfes of the cut line into the lid, seal with some good RTV. Then cut 24" of vacumm line and attach to one of the metal lines in the lid. I attach the other vacumm line to the other metal cut line in the lid. Now I put the small line on anything like the bleeder screw. Attach the other to a vacum sorce, usually on the intake manifold, or I have even used another vehicle's vacumm in the case of the fuel tank. This allows you to pull out all of the fluid. You can see when the new fluid enters by the color. Just make sure to keep filling the master cylinder on the clutch. This keeps the mess down to a minimum as I am a neat freak and brake fluid eats into painted surfaces. This is just like the one man brake bleeder mentioned above, but this allows you to do much more than this task and the jar is clear where the one man kit is white plastic, HDPE. The glass jar allows you to handle fuel. And by using another vehicle's vacumm it will safely bleed off the fumes. Handy for the mower or mini bike that has a rusty tank and bad gas.

 

Nah, just carbon from being heated up so many times and mixture with water and air. (mixture with water allows the fluid to boil at a much lower temperature)
All brake fluid will turn from it's off-white to a darker colour regardless of a perfect braking system given exposure to engine bay/braking system/hydraulic system heat, and water and oxygen. Dark fluid is not really an indicator of hydraulic systems overhaul requirement.

 

Well, this is off topic, but WHAT DOES IIRC MEAN???

Okay, now that that is out of the way, scathcart is right, it is just water and impurities in the system, not a decaying boot or anything. A word of warning, The fluid will turn back to a lighter brown quickly, so let it go for a couple weeks or a month, and then flush the system again. With that done, it should be fairly clean for a while. The only way now to keep it the pretty clear of the fluid from the bottle is to rebuild or replace the master and slave cylinders as the dirt is in the rubber seals and will keep coming off forever now. It really isn't that big of a deal, so don't worry about it.

 

If I Remember Correctly

-=Russ=-

 

AH HA!

 

Yep, $46 + $10 shipping from Nopi with no core charges. From the picutes and description they should be brand new as well. That's a damn good price because I usually shop online and I tell you that is freaking cheap.

 

Brake fluid is as clear as beer & will stay that way.
The clutch & brake hydraulics are designed to keep contamination out.
The gray or black tint will come mostly from one source - the rubber piston cups.
The problem is moisture.
The fluid can absorb only so much, then the excess water starts to corrode the cylinder bore & wear out the piston cup.
With yearly flushing/bleeding, the hydraulics will outlast the car.

Most of us (including me) don't bother to flush the brake fluid until it's too late.

 

listen to sure shot. i had the same EXACT prob when i bought my fc3s. I bought new master adn slave cylenders and bled the living hell out of my clutch hydraulics. Now its good as new. Also just got done totally restoring the brake system. New rotors, calipers, bearings, pads, and the brake master cylender. Off topic just happy!