Cleaning Brake Fluid Reservoir (1 Viewer)

[Verybadwizard]

Hello,

First off thanks to you all for this great resource/forum! It is an awesome place for newbies like me. I need to do a brake fluid flush on my 2004 lx 470 while doing this i would like to clean the brake fluid reservoir. There is some particulate matter in the fluid and i believe it is the gunk from the sides of the reservoir or system that have coalesced and formed floaters. I have found some great resources on how to do the flush but i couldn't find anything specific on cleaning the reservoir or what gunk in reservoir might mean. I have two main question.

1) If i follow the section of "Master Cylinder Rebuild - DIY" thread when he removed the reservoir. If i do this and clean it, put it back on, then commence brake flush should that work? Is there anything i should think about before disconnecting reservoir?

2) I am concerned that the junk in the brake fluid might be a sign of something more problematic like degrading brake lines. How worried should i be? It has been a number of years since the vehicle has had new brake fluid so this could be normal.

Any advice or direction to a thread that talks about this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Again!

Pictures:

 

[half k cruiser]

Mine looked pretty nasty like that. I suctioned out what I could then pulled the reservoir off. Sprayed it out with brake cleaner as best I could. However, there are baffles inside of it that make it difficult to clean all the way. Got it as good as I could and set it back on top of the master, added new fluid.

 

[brownfox]

@2001LC has one of his blueprinting threads that covers cleaning all of that very thoroughly. Might take me a minutes to find it. It will be one of his thread titles that describes the cruiser.

 

[Verybadwizard]

@2001LC has one of his blueprinting threads that covers cleaning all of that very thoroughly. Might take me a minutes to find it. It will be one of his thread titles that describes the cruiser.

Thanks for the info! I will go through his build threads and try to find it.

 

[Skidoo]

See you are local.
Don't think it is a good idea to use brake cleaner on it, in my MC guide I used alcohol to clean mine then flushed it out with a little brake fluid a couple of times. Brake cleaners can be bad for plastic. If you think the particulate is coming from something might want to think about new brake hoses, they are a hot button for me as my 22 year old Suburban's hoses swelled up on inside and cut my braking in half.

 

[gil12]

I only clean the innards with fresh brake fluid - I can't say if this is necessary or not, but it is probably the safest bet.

 

[Spike555]

Brake fluid breaks down over time with use because of heat, just like any other fluid.
Engine sludge forms from motor oil and that not changed before it wore out.
The “chunks” you see in the brake reservoir are from the brake fluid breaking down, not the hoses.
Not changing your brake fluid every 2yrs like recommended will cause your ABS modulator to get gummed up and your ABS will stop working properly, if you’re lucky it’ll stop working completely. Faulty ABS modulator can make you not stop at all. The passages, solenoids and etc inside it get stuck and cause the ABS to work when not needed which reduces braking power.
Fill your reservoir, bleed the brakes, drive normal. Then flush again in a month, repeat until you are satisfied the reservoir is clean enough for you.
If you want this done now, replace the reservoir with a new one.