My god. I just got finished bleeding my brakes on my new FD, and holy Jesus. The fluid looked like used motor oil. The previous 2 owners obviously never did it in 11 years!

We did it 3 times, mainly because my dad wasn't paying attention the 2nd time and the resevoir went empty and we sucked a hell of a lot of air into the system, so 3rd time was a charm. Pedal feels 11tybillion times better now. We're gonna do it again next friday with some hi temp fluid so I'll be ready for the track, and also to get any remaining gunk out of the lines.

 

It's also possible that the previous owner used ATE Super Blue Racing brake fluid. More than once, the ATE Super Blue has been mistaken for abused fluid.

On the other hand, if the fluid was burnt orange in color or was lumpy in texture, then you did have some really old gunk in there. On a street car, it's a good idea to bleed the brakes every two years. For a track car, you obviously want to change it more frequently.

When you guys do the fluid again next Friday, you may want to try some of the techniques in my brake bleeding web page. For example, rapping the caliper a few times with a dead-blow hammer may dislodge a couple more bubbles. Good luck!

See: http://www.zeckhausen.com/bleeding_brakes.htm

 

Agreed,

I posted on here about a double pedal being required to get good braking power as an FD thing.

I had this problem and rebled the system with 3 people to find the double pump problem to go away totally.

Don't believe everything you read, take your time and re-bleed your brakes, it does fix the problem.

 

Wow, thanks for the link. I'm pretty sure that the fluid that was in there was not super blue, the previous owner saw this car as more of a burden than a pleasure, and was very miserly with his money. Plus the fluid that came out was smokey and brown/black and full of gunk.

I'm definately going to use this website next friday when we do it again, and I'm putting good fluid in too, in prep for my first track event, hopefully next month.

 

Wow, Dave Zeckhausen! I remember asking you questions back in early '96 when I bought my FD. Thanks very much for the help-- you definitely helped me to find a good one

 

yea bleed ur brake and change ur coolent ever year and you will make your car last so much longer

 

I wish I still had mine! I miss it. By now, I'm sure all the bugs would be worked out. Of course, there would probably be no red paint left behind on that '93 R1!

I did a BBK installation on a yellow '93 R1 yesterday and it brought back many memories. See: http://www.zeckhausen.com/Mazda/RX-7...stallation.htm