Flush your Brake Fluid or suffer the consequenses
 

Today I decided to flush the Brake Fluid in my SL500 and my wife's ML320 because I changed the pads and rotors last weekend on both of them. The SL was last flushed in 2004 and the ML in 2002. I purchased a pressure bleeder for $50 and bought two quarts of MB Brake Fluid from Phil @ Mercedes Shop. I'm glad I flushed the fluid. Check out the attached photos. I live in Florida so heat and water is a constant issue. Bottomline is don't change your fluid and suffer the consequenses of destroyed system parts or be smart and take an hour to do what the Engineers at MB recommend. Have fun.

Waiting for all the cries of; but I never changed it in my 300 million mile Toyota and it stopped as good as new when I sold it to a guy who welded the hood shut and drove it another 1 billion miles.:D

i change mine about every 18 months....

good job.

Hmmmm, last time I looked, the Owner's Manual calls for a flush/refill every 2 years.
While the benefits may not be immediate, sometime down the road it will make a difference.

I change my oil every 25k miles, and I never once flushed my brake fluid! Who cares about stopping anyway. That's what trees and other vehicles are for!

Thats what I was waiting for!:D

The manual for my W126 says to do it every spring, but every two years is probably plenty. I still do mine every spring becuase its so cheap and easy their is no reason not to.

flushing brake fluid
 

I have done mine twice in less than 2 yeaars on my 300E. I just purchased a Motive brake bleeder and Mercedes-Benz brake resivor cap . I am most likely goiiing to do it some time this summer toward the end of August to try out this new bleeder.
Clean fluid makes things work better.

Bob Geco
1992 300-E sportline

Tip
 

I learned two tricks when doing this task. First buy a cheap Turkey Baster and use it to remove the old fluid from the master cylinder. Put the old fluid into used water bottles and seal them up. No need to "push" the dirty fluid thru your system. Next, fill the master cylinder to the top with clean fluid before installing the pressure bleeder. It makes the process go much quicker. Throw the Turkey Baster and any left over fluid away because they will be no good in a short time. Remember to clean the pressure bleeder and accessories with Denatured Alchol when you finish.

People who have cars with anti-lock brakes need to depress the brake pedal 60 times to get all the old brake fluid out of the accumulators in the ABS box.

Or at least make sure your wife doesn't confuse it for a valid kitchen utensil anymore.

Changing the brake fluid saved my teenage life in 1979. I had a '75 Kawasaki S3 (two-stroke triple), and the old fluid came out looking like old coffee. The next day, speeding, I crested the little hill on the GW parkway near DC's National Airport only to see a taxi parked in the road. I grabbed the front disc brake with my usual force and came to a brutally short, but safe, stop with wheel chirping. That was a real brake - something I had never experienced on a motorcycle before.

It may have been something that plain old bleeding would have corrected, but just seeing the crap that had developed in 3-4 years made a believer out of me.

In regards to bleeding with ABS, my 86 is just push the fluid through. The maint. manual for the 95 has a separate bleed screw for the ABS unit. Plus my wife would rebel against 60 repetitions of "down-up" (assuming we stay on subject :D ). Pressure bleed is the way to go. I only needed to replace one master cylinder after manual bleed to be converted.

I was under the impression that the system was also flushed with some sort of cleaning fluid before the new brake fluid was put in. Is that not the case?

What happens to the old fluid that it requires replacing? Just gets dirty? Breaks down?

60 is just a warm-up. :D

Over time, brakefluid can absorb moisture, this will result in rust, etc. in your brakesystem.
NOT a good idea. ;)

I never noticed this.