I just did a full brake flush by sucking the resevoir dry, refilling a new one (after replacing the old dirty grimey one). It was not nearly as much as I expected. I'd say no more than 1/2 liter. (oh, I did replace all the calipers too, so all I was really clearning was the lines, ABS, and refilling calipers and resevoir. I still have the fluid container, so I can look and give you a better idea if you need it. 2 of those small bottles you see at the store would do it I think.

 

Was that for all four lines? In my case I filled a 500ml standard water bottle on just the rear left and never saw the color change. I think I used way too much but while I was under there I decided to just make sure.

 

yes. replaced brake hoses too

 

When the color goes from dark to light you are good.

 

By the amount I am pretty sure I got to clean fluid, probably way over, on the rear left. In the reservoir I can see a color difference in what was there before and after I replaced it with new but I can't see any color difference in my clear drain hose. It is probably becuse the tube has such little fluid it in the darker fluid doesn't look as dark as it does in the reservoir. if 500 ml can replace the whole system then I would guess it might be 200 for each rear and 50 for the front lines.

 

I used 800ml-1000ml total for an entire system bleed. Did about a week ago and the rears will certainly take more than the fronts, I think I filled a 100ml vacuum bleeder bottle 3 times per rear caliper before I was comfortable with how the fluid looked. Fronts barely used 80ml each to look good after bleeding the rear lines.

 

just checked my bottle. used between 1.5 to 2 liters. had to redo one of the calipers (rear right cause they sent wrong one) and bleed again, but that wasn't much. Id say to do this job, have 2L on hand, so you wont run out.

 

OP does your car have rear drum brakes? Only asking because I dunno how different brake flushing is for the 2.2L variants. On my V6 with rear discs, I only had to use one 500ml bottle and even then I actually had like 50ml left over that I decided to use because what am I going to do with 50ml of leftover brake fluid...mind you, the existing brake fluid was pitch black and thus sorely in need of a flushing, but the black fluid made it a lot easier to tell when the fresh fluid was coming in.

I also found out that the bleed screws actually have a torque rating of 8.3 N m (85 kgf-cm or 74 in. lbf) so on a 6" wrench so that's basically light thumb pressure applied to the end of the wrench.

 

It's largely a guess, but the volume in the brake lines is very small. I use color change, suck the fluid from the reservoir first then do the rear passenger caliper and work around to the shortest line at the driver's side.

If you put the old fluid in a fresh clean container for each caliper the color will be easier to see.

 

Oh yeah, I did neglect to mention that I made my own brake bleed kit in the form of 5mm clear vinyl tubing and a spray bottle. I tried making a vacuum pump out of the trigger spray as per that handyman's youtube video, but that performed less than satisfactorily to say the least.

But I had a spool of 5mm rather expensive 5mm tubing and turns out the bleed screw is actually 6mm...good thing I just stuck the end into a flame and worked it over the screw while it was soft so now the tube could actually fit onto the bleed nipples. I cut a 2m length of clear tube because I wanted it to be long enough to raise it higher than the master cylinder, but ended up not doing that because I couldn't see any air bubbles in the tube at all while I was pumping the brakes.

The 2m clear tubing was more than enough to see when the fluid turned from dirty black to a sunflower oil gold colour. And I think I now remember why I actually went through a whole 500ml bottle - my oldest bro bought a bottle of DOT 4 fluid a while back but didn't have the tools to do a brake bleed, so he ended up just taking it to the mechanics. I ended up using that, assuming the existing fluid in my car was DOT 3 and thus making sure there was zero trace of DOT 3 left in the system.

 

I like to flush the system, a glass bottle with a hose to the bleeder, fill master to the top and pump 5 times, then refill. This is doing it myself. If the fluid has been in there 10 years it will be obvious when the color changes if not dump the bottle, leaving just enough fluid to stop backflow. Doing it this way makes the flow of fluid much greater in less time and should get out almost all of any contamination. It also has the advantage of even getting air out of lines that have loops or high spots that can hold air, like the clutch booster system in a 1993 300 ZX twin turbo. I don't think I ever used a liter of brake fluid bleeding any system and you always start at the two rears, preferably the right on left hand drive vehicles. As far as systems with ABS modules you might not want to be too crazy with the pumping and pressure.

 

Buy this or similar: One Man Brake Bleeder Hose Tool - CTA Manufacturing 1238

...or make something like it (but significantly more expensive). I like to use clear silicone tubing as it seals the best and you can see the bubbles pass the check valve then fail to get back through.

 

Buy this or similar: One Man Brake Bleeder Hose Tool - CTA Manufacturing 1238

...or make something like it (but significantly more expensive)

Man you guys get stuff so cheap over there...the exact same thing costs us 21 bucks (US$14.57 as of this post). Although our minimum wages are more than twice what you guys have over there so that contributes to the price. But also probably because we tend to price gouge everything over here too.

I tried to make this kind of brake bleeder with a trigger spray bottle and length of clear tubing I bought at the hardware store which was cheaper than even the common one man bleeders (3 bucks for spray bottle, $8.66 for 5mm x 5m length tube...standard price or just more price gouging?) but it performed less than spectacularly as a vacuum pump, so I ended up just pumping the brakes instead and interestingly enough despite concerns about air getting through the threads, there were absolutely no air bubbles in the tubing that I could see. It may or may not have helped that some of the fluid was dribbling a tiny amount through the threads. I could've just gotten an empty water bottle or something lol.

Just remember...8.3 N m torque - when it comes to stuff like brakes I personally follow the specs used...at least as much as I can when I don't have a crow foot spanner head.

 

Model airplane fuel hose works good and it's made to withstand nitromethane fuel.

 

I ran through a quart (946 ml) of DOT3 bleeding all four wheels in my '07.
The fluid that came out looked just like Coke.
///

 

I wasn't really talking about the DOT 5.1 fluid though lol just the price of things in general. Back in 2013 it made the news when it was cheaper to fly to the US to buy Adobe CS6, then fly back, versus buying it in Australia. The CEO also completely dodged the question as to why it was so expensive during a speech/press conference.

Also I'm not sure if you noticed my country flag...the price is more or less the same as local retailers (technically a bit more expensive since fl oz will always result in slightly less than the typical 500 mL/1L bottles) and with postage that just doubles it lul.

 

It's more like people will still prefer DOT 3/4 to DOT 5.1 even though they cost essentially the same. National price differences, can't do much about it. Cheap there, high priced here. High priced there, cheap here. I can buy some small anime figures that come from those giant vending machines from eBay for $24 yet they cost $5 or $10 in Japan.

 

That just sounds like ebay sellers jacking up the price to make a profit which the general consensus amongst aussies is when it comes to stuff sold here and identical stuff sold overseas, I mean I guess it's understandable if you're a private seller looking to make a quick buck, but for a large company where lowering the price would be hardly a dent in their revenue...most of the time they do it because we're spineless - we (myself included) will complain all day about crappy politicians and whatnot, but nobody is actually bothered enough to do anything about it.

Also like how it was cheaper to fly to the US, buy Adobe CS6, fly back, rather than just buying locally. The price difference should definitely not be big enough that a return plane ticket across the atlantic is cheaper...

 

That just sounds like ebay sellers jacking up the price to make a profit which the general consensus amongst aussies is when it comes to stuff sold here and identical stuff sold overseas, I mean I guess it's understandable if you're a private seller looking to make a quick buck, but for a large company where lowering the price would be hardly a dent in their revenue...ugh

Like how it was cheaper to fly to the US, buy Adobe CS6, fly back, rather than just buying locally. The price difference should definitely not be big enough that a return plane ticket across the atlantic is cheaper...

It pretty much but then again, for an anime figurine there is no real good method of buying one Stateside other than getting lucky and having a anime store near you or Amazon. On the other hand, certain Japanese sellers tend to be really cool. I got 2-day shipping straight from Japan even though I did not ask for it.