Thread: Substitute ATF for brake fluid

I would say
"When in doubt suck it out"

Regards PhilipA

I would suck out all the old fluid you can, Then i would flush the system with new fluid until the colour has changed to the corect colour.
I would then see what happens and hope the seals havent been affected.
You should know fairly soon if there is a problem

Ian
Bittern

How do you know its ATF and not Silicone brake fluid, which does not mix with water.

Silicone brake fluid is Purple & its looks like thats what you have.

Sucking it out & flushing wont work at all. If it is ATF you'll have to replace every rubber component of the brake system.
If its Silicone don't put ordinary Glycol based brake fluid in it unless you replace all the rubber components. .

Originally Posted by goingbush

How do you know its ATF and not Silicone brake fluid, which does not mix with water.

Silicone brake fluid is Purple & its looks like thats what you have.

Sucking it out & flushing wont work at all. If it is ATF you'll have to replace every rubber component of the brake system.
If its Silicone don't put ordinary Glycol based brake fluid in it unless you replace all the rubber components. .

When I pulled the cap off and smelled it I knew, not my first rodeo.....

And it doesn't look like it went any further than the reservoir....but that's a dangerous game possibly

IT went further.

2 stage flush once with cheap brake fluid (use dot 3 or lower) of a different colour to both whats in there and what you will put in there. Do the power bleed.

put in the new fluid (dot 3+ as required) and bleed through with a powerbleed. Repeat in a month or so.

you're wanting unconatminated fluid to come through on all 3 bleeds.

you should be ok.

IF its silicone fluid (you'll know if it was) I would reccomend pulling the lines from the ABS, checking for conatmination before you start the first flush and if it didnt get that far, depending on how long it was in there for overhauling the MC with new seals.

Originally Posted by shack

When I pulled the cap off and smelled it I knew, not my first rodeo.....

... well why are you asking here ??

do you know what silicone brake fluid smells like ? Did you test to see if its flammable ?

Originally Posted by goingbush

... well why are you asking here ??

do you know what silicone brake fluid smells like ? Did you test to see if its flammable ?

Why am I asking what? I don't quite understand your comment.

Cheers
James

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

IT went further.

2 stage flush once with cheap brake fluid (use dot 3 or lower) of a different colour to both whats in there and what you will put in there. Do the power bleed.

put in the new fluid (dot 3+ as required) and bleed through with a powerbleed. Repeat in a month or so.

you're wanting unconatminated fluid to come through on all 3 bleeds.

you should be ok.

IF its silicone fluid (you'll know if it was) I would reccomend pulling the lines from the ABS, checking for conatmination before you start the first flush and if it didnt get that far, depending on how long it was in there for overhauling the MC with new seals.

Thanks for that Dave, I'm even thinking to suck the whole system out with the MityVac and see how much..if any... atf is anywhere else, the one thing in my favor of course is that the atf is lighter so rises to the top, and it appears that what must have happened was someone toiled off the reservoir, not filed the system with it, and also the vehicle has not been going, it's been studying for some time.

I was somewhat relieved when I sucked back out from the modulator and only got brake fluid, as I'm thinking that the extremely light oily residue on top in the pic was most likely already in the container when I dropped the brake fluid on top.
I hadn't cleaned it properly as I was certain everything was contaminated, I'll obviously try and verify exactly how far it had got before any flushing/bleeding.

Cheers
James