When I don't know what type of fluid is in there? I don't even know how old it is, seeing as I bought the car last Oct and haven't had the system flushed. I guess now is as good a time as any to flush the brake fluid, but I'd rather get away with topping it off and bleeding after my reinstall, if that's possible. Then I'll get the brake fluid flushed properly when I take the car in for my next service.

I'm planning on pulling the rear calipers to paint them, as I could only get paint in a spray can.

 

Yup. Most brake fluids mix easily with each other.....DOT 3, DOT 4, synthetics....they all intermingle well. There ARE some 'racing' type fluids out there (brand specific) that caution one to NOT mix, but often that is so that the special properties of the fluid are not compromised rather than some compatability issue or danger of the fluid not working.


Just snarf it out with a shop vac and fill your reservoirs up again.

 

Cool

The car was stock when I bought it so I doubt there was any fancy brake fluid in it. I don't have a vac pump yet, I found one but refused to buy it because it couldnt do pressure (for turbo troubleshooting), so I won't flush it. I'll just top it up with some regular fluid while I'm bleeding, and it can live like that for a month or two untill I get it flushed properly.

I've only got to do the rear because I painted the front calipers while they were on the car.

Thanks for that!

 

DOT 3 and DOT 4 fluids are compatible, but you should be using a DOT 4 fluid anyway, and if you flush the system, there's no need to worry about what was in it previously. DOT 5 fluids (silicone-based) are not compatible with DOT 3 and 4.

 

Simple but related question: if I spray a bunch of brake paint into a dish, can I use a brush to apply it? Or does spray paint have some special thing that requires it to be sprayed on?

Dave

 

Yes.

 

you can brush it on, the spray pressure it so you will have a nice even flow of paint without the uneven paint marks that you'd usually get with a paint brush.

 

They're cast brake calipers. I'm going to brush it on a little thick and just let to color do its thing.

Dave

 

I was originally going to brush the paint on. I sprayed it into an old ice cream container and started brushing it on but the paint was very fine/runny and it wasnt brushing on well. If I put it on thin it looked like crap, if I put it on thick it ran everywhere. Would have seriously taken coats and coats to get it looking good, if u ever could.

I figured it would be easier to mask off the front calipers and spray it on, and it was.

For the rear, I'd rather pull the calipers and spray them while off the car.

Cheers guys!

 

Spray paint doesn't have the viscosity characteristics suitable for brushing, so it probably won't work very well.

 

Why not just buy the Folia Tec kit?