DeLorean Brake Fluid Change

Not all the work I do on my car is fixing things or upgrading parts – sometimes I do regular maintenance too. For instance, flushing & changing my brake fluid – it’d been a few years since I last did this job and it needs to be done regularly, particularly on older cars that don’t have sealed brake systems. Plus, I also had some air bubbles in my brake lines that I needed to remove. Aside from the fact that all automotive fluids slowly degrade with time, brake fluid in particular is usually very hygroscopic (meaning it absorbs water very easily, even pulling moisture from humidity out of the air). Most brake fluid has additives that let it tolerate a certain amount of water, but it’s not very much. If it exceeds this limit, it’ll start rusting things in your brake system from the inside – which is even more concerning when you consider that brake fluid itself is highly corrosive if it touches the wrong things.

It’s also important to make sure you change the fluid in the brake lines themselves, not just the fluid in the main reservoir. Brake systems need to be bled of any air bubbles, too – if there’s air bubbles your brake pedal will feel spongy and won’t work as well as it should. There’s a procedure to follow for this that varies between cars, and the DeLorean uses a different order than the usual due to the car’s unique configuration, so be sure to find out the correct process before you start.

First set of fluid bled from my brake lines – super dark liquid in the bottle, tiny black flakes in the clear tube… This fluid change was definitely needed!

Part-way through the bleeding procedure. Remember to keep on topping up the reservoir as you bleed the system, you don’t want it to run low & pull air into the lines or else you have to start again

Bleeding finished, only clean fluid coming out now. You can see the liquid in the bottle is light coloured now. Time for the next wheel

After rinsing everywhere very thoroughly to make sure no corrosive brake fluid is left on anything, this job is done! This one’s not a very glamorous job, but ya gotta keep on top of the regular maintenance to keep a car running. 😉

All finished!